A Fistful of Shepards
by thebluninja
Summary: One Shepard spontaneously turns into two when they go to talk to Nihlus. A third appears on Eden Prime to save Ashley, a fourth appears next to the bombs, and a fifth appears immediately after the beacon explodes. What's causing all these different versions of Shepard to appear?
1. Eden Prime

_Author's Note: What's this? Another story? Yes it is. Credit, or blame if you're so inclined, goes entirely to the author of "The Sweetie Chronicles", Wanderer D. His premise was taking a MLP and putting her through, essentially, the Sliders plot. My premise was taking all those different Shepards and cramming them together. There _is_ a rhyme and reason to this, a method to my madness, and I'm not introducing it for several chapters. But given that I had already named the first six Sheps during my commute home, and the majority vote from the amazing folks in the Aria's Afterlife forum was for this, I'm writing it._

* * *

"Nihlus is headed your way, Captain."

"He's already here," came the terse response, followed by the channel clicking off.

"Nice one, Joker," Angela Shepard teased the pilot. "Get him all riled up for me."

"Yeah, uh, sorry about that, Commander." He seemed actually apologetic, which was a nice change from the major chip he had on his shoulder most of the rest of the time.

She ran her right hand through the short pixie-cut and glanced at her omni-tool. "Don't worry about it, Anderson won't hold it against you." She turned around, glancing briefly at her reflection on the window, before adding over her shoulder, "probably."

He just groaned, and she walked down the length of the bridge and around the CIC hologram, nodding to Pressly and listening to the doctor trying to talk the new Marine, Jenkins or something like that, out of being an idiot. For someone with nearly two years of service, he still acted like a damn teenager. She hit the button on the right side of the door.

She stepped into the meeting room, and her finely tuned hearing, guaranteed to catch a faulty capacitor at a hundred yards as Adams liked to joke, caused her to whirl to the side at a footstep that matched hers. Standing facing her was a complete stranger, despite an odd sense of familiarity about him. But she knew all the crew after three months with them, and whoever this was, he _wasn't_ on the crew. She raised her left hand, omni-tool flaring to life, as he raised his left hand, biotics coalescing in nearly perfect unison.

"Identify yourself!" _And speaking of eerie unison_, she thought, as their voices rang out in perfect unison. Her eyes narrowed to even narrower slits, studying his tanned Caucasian features even as he studied her asian ones.

"Well, isn't this interesting," Nihlus said, but neither of them risked a glance at him.

The door opened again, Anderson stopping short in the open doorway. "Commander Shepard, what the hell is going on here?" he asked, looking back and forth between them.

"I'd like to know that too," both of them said, again in perfect unison. Frowning, she raised on finger, in the universal _Hold on a second_ gesture, and he took the opportunity to drop a Stasis on her.

"Captain, I was reporting to the briefing room as ordered," he started, only to halt when Anderson pulled his gun out and pointed it at his nose. "Anderson?" he asked, slowly and obviously raising his hands in surrender.

"I don't know who you are, or how you got on board my ship, but taking out Commander Shepard was the last mistake you'll ever make." Her stasis broke, and she twitched her omni-tool, sending a taser-like Overload at the man, dropping him twitching to the floor.

"This really _is_ interesting," Nihlus said with dry sarcasm. "How long did it take you to train him for this prank, Captain?"

On the floor, the twitching man in matching N7 armor turned with Angela and Anderson to look at the turian Spectre. "I don't know what you're talking about, Nihlus," the captain protested. "If this is a prank, it's most certainly not of my doing."

"Really," he drawled out, walking up and extending a hand to the man on the ground. "Well then, why don't you introduce yourself," he suggested.

The strange biotic glanced at all three people in the room. "My name is Commander Bradley Shepard, L3 adept, XO of the SSV Normandy."

The woman and Anderson gave each other a look of pure, unfiltered, dumbfoundedness. "I'm Commander _Angela_ Shepard, engineer, XO of the SSV Normandy."

The two Shepards moved to stand nose to nose, staring each other down. In both was the same determination. "My mother is Hannah Shepard," she started.

"Formerly of the SSV Einstein, currently on Arcturus station," he finished. They started circling each other, still holding eye contact.

"I was born on Arcturus."

"I got this scar in basic training."

They paused staring at each other, startled when Nihlus suddenly clapped. "Excellent. I'll take the pair. Unless you're hiding a third Shepard on board somewhere, captain?"

The darker man blinked in surprise, shaking his head. "This … this can't be real. There can't be _two_ Commander Shepards! They don't even look alike!"

They looked at each other again. "My father's name was Kwan," she said.

"Curious, mine was Bartholomew." She raised an eyebrow. "Really. Mom used to tease him he should change it when they got married."

"Then he died when a power conduit overloaded during a batarian pirate attack in the Verge."

"No, he died in a drive core leak, exposing mom to eezo."

They both frowned, staring at each other. "Something weird is going on here," they stereoed again.

"Stop that, both of you," Anderson said, clearly wigged out at the whole thing. "Both of you are in armor, check out weapons from the armory and go with Nihlus. We'll try and sort this out when you return."

They glanced at each other, shrugged using the exact same motion despite the six inches in height difference, and strode out, Angela's pace slightly faster than Bradley's. "I don't suppose you noticed," Nihlus said as he paused next to the captain, "but their hand motions for his biotic stasis and her overload command, were exactly the same motion." He made a flip-flop motion with his hand. "Makes me curious, if we had your doctor measure them, would they match _perfectly_ once you account for the size difference?" Without waiting for an answer, he strode out and headed for the cargo bay.

Kaidan and Jenkins were, understandably, confused at the sudden appearance of not just another team member, but a male Shepard. Still, they listened to Angela's growl to ignore it and focus on the mission, double-checking each other's weapons and armor. They dropped onto the planet easily, splitting off into two-man fire teams, Angela and Kaidan covering Bradley and Jenkins, then reversing it as they leapfrogged forward.

Before too long, they heard the sound of gunfire and rushed forward, seeing a white and pink armored female marine ducking down behind a rock. Before either Shepard could give any orders on how to engage the robotic drones, Jenkins rushed forward, getting gunned down as he fired wildly in their general direction. "Fuck. Jenkins is down," Angela shouted into her communicator.

"I've got you covered," came a new voice, threaded with a thin accent she couldn't quite place. A sniper rifle rang out, and one of the drones exploded, followed quickly by a second. "That should be enough for you to duck out of cover and finish it off," the new man said.

_He thinks I'm that marine_, Angela thought to herself, but it proved moot, as she hit the drone with an Overload matching two sets of weapon fire and a biotic gravity slam. Rising from cover, five people converged in the middle of the field. "Kaidan," the new man said, helmet covering his face, "who are these people and what are you doing with them?"

Angela and Bradley exchanged glances, and this time with intentional unison, said, "I'm Commander Shepard." Whatever the new man might have said was interrupted by this, and he paused for a moment before pulling off his own helmet, revealing dark skin a few shades lighter than Anderson's.

"I do believe that's my line," he said, examining each of them in turn. "Commander Charles Shepard."

"Angela, he's Bradley." The adept merely nodded.

"Alright, what the fuck is going on?" the pink-clad marine suddenly interrupted. "If this is some sort of prank, then the guy over there better get up right the _fuck_ now!" Her assault rifle was pointed at Jenkin's dead body, fifty feet further up the slope.

Angela stepped in front of it, her hand putting gentle but steady pressure on the rifle. "It's not a prank. I'm the XO of the SSV Normandy. We came here to pick up the Prothean artifact. Somehow," she glanced at the two male Shepards, "these two totally bizarre doubles of me have appeared all in the last half an hour."

"I wonder if the Prothean artifact has something to do with it?" Bradley mused out loud. "The dig site isn't supposed to be that far away."

"It is our destination. If not, perhaps Nihlus will have some insight into what is happening," Charles said. He collapsed his sniper rifle, exchanging it for an assault rifle. "I'm going to guess that I have the most weapons training of us, so I'll take point, unless either of me object?" Neither of the others objected, so in a loose circle, they moved forward.

The husked colonists were an unpleasant surprise, as was the presence of geth platforms, but between the five of them, resistance seemed incredibly light. Angela used her tech skills to disrupt the geth shields and weapons; Bradley and Kaidan used their biotics to interrupt charging geth, or just delay them, long enough for the matched firepower of Ashley and Charles to blow them to pieces.

Finding Nihlus' body was a sobering moment for all of them, however, and Angela stood back to watch Charles and Bradley play good cop/bad cop with the lazy worker. "Do I sound like that?" she asked Kaidan, while Williams worked hard to studiously ignore the entire lot of them.

"Mostly, you sound like Charles, without the accent," he replied, still somewhat spooked. "But I think you could sound like Bradley if you didn't have such a good hold on your temper."

Finished with their interrogation, they moved towards the tram, taking it across a long, boring track, to the other side.

Where a redhead with a ponytail in N7 armor was working quickly to dismantle a bomb, her back to the group. "Oh, fuck no," Williams complained, "not another one."

"Quit whining, marine," the redhead snapped out, "and keep them off of me unless you want to be turned into chunky salsa!"

Growling, Angela strode out from cover, snapping off an overload before shoving the redhead out of the way. "Let an engineer do this," drawing a look of irritation before the other woman took out her sniper rifle. "There, done, before you even fired a shot." The sniper rifle barked, taking a geth's flashlight and sending it spinning onto the track below. "I'm Commander Angela Shepard."

The redhead paused, turning to stare at her, before a couple of rounds pinged off her shields and she ducked into cover. "Commander Dierdre Shepard," she said, eyes narrowed. "Is this some kind of prank?"

"Afraid not. Charles Shepard, at your service," he paused to lean sideways and send a geth crashing to the ground, suddenly lacking knee joints.

Dierdre glanced around, and gestured at the as-yet-unidentified man throwing biotics around. "Lemme guess, he's Bart Shepard."

"Bart? Really?" he complained, sending another geth spinning with a singularity. "It's Bradley, L3 adept!"

"Commander, er, Commander**_s_**, the geth are down for the moment. I see four more bombs, though," Kaidan interrupted.

"On it," Angela and Dierdre said in unison, shooting daggers at each other. The two women raced off, splitting up and disarming the bombs quickly, Angela faster with the bombs but slower at the running. "I can see the beacon," the asian woman said, standing up from the last bomb as a husk came charging up the path. She shuffled backwards, her pistol putting three rounds in it before a sniper shot from the redhead took it down for good.

"Well then, let's move out, shall we?" Charles said, stepping forward to take the lead again. Aside from another husk, the platforms below were empty, as the group split up to search them and pick up any useful mods and weapons left behind.

"Oh shit," came Kaidan's shout, "I think the Prothean artifact is active!" All four Shepards turned around, seeing Ashley being dragged towards the device. In unison, they all sprinted forwards, somehow managing to not get in each other's way as they hurled her free. Then the beacon exploded.

Kaidan looked at the platform and the shattered pieces of the beacon. "Normandy, this is LT Alenko. I have," he paused to count, "six bodies needing medical care." He ignored the response from Joker, staring at the newest arrival, a blond man who looked like a viking. "What the hell is going on around here?" he shouted uselessly at the sky.


	2. Beacon's Aftermath

_Author's Note: Welcome, bronies! Also welcome to non-bronies, but apparently a couple hundred people read Wanderer D's FIM blog and came this way. I hope you're enjoying it so far. We're up to seven Shepards now, with more to come. I actually had to make a freaking Excel sheet to keep track of everyone by name/class/background/karma. This is the first fic I've _ever_ had to do that for. You can hate me for that, as long as you leave me good reviews!_

* * *

The med bay was, for the first (and hopefully _last_, Chakwas prayed) time, completely packed. Every table was full, and the fifth probably-Shepard was still laid out on a stretcher on the floor. "Doctor? What's the prognosis?" Anderson asked, stopping in the doorway.

She brushed a dangling bit of hair irritably out of her face. "This would be easier if I had medical records on any of the other four," she complained. "Still … as far as I can tell, they should all be fine soon. The Prothean artifact did something to their brains, and all of them are essentially in a sort of hyper-REM sleep." She glanced over her shoulder. "How much longer before we arrive at the Citadel?"

He grunted. "Joker's taking it slowly as we can without arousing suspicion. I've spent the last two hours talking with Admiral Hackett." He stopped as the largest Shepard, the mystery blond man, groaned. "I'd hope for answers, but I just don't see that happening." Angela, _his_ Shepard, was stirring as well. "Do you mind if I try something?" he asked quietly.

"What did you have in mind?" Chakwas asked, getting a devilish grin in response. "I ought to retire. Start up a clinic somewhere nice and quiet, like Omega."

He just grinned broader, then wiped the smile off his face as he took in a deep breath. "On your _feet_, Commander!" he barked out, and in near unison, all six of them (_Wait a minute, six? There were five just a second ago!_ he thought desperately) popped to their feet in perfectly swaying disoriented unison.

"Where did she … you know, captain, I think I'm going to take my emergency stash of ice brandy and retire to the back room." With incredible gravitas, she stalked through the room, pausing only to get a bottle from a cupboard, and then the door sealed behind her.

"Would someone mind explaining who all these … other people are, and why they're in the Normandy's med bay?" the blond man asked.

"I could say the same," the Hispanic replied.

"I have to explain all of this, don't I," Angela said, getting nods from Anderson and the other three Shepards she'd already met. Huffing out a sigh, she activated her omni-tool, and stenciled an "A" across one shoulder. "You guys want one?"

"Certainly," Bradley and Charles said together. "I've got it," Dierdre responded, burning her own "D".

"So. I'm guessing one of you has a first name that starts with 'E', the other with 'F'. Right?" Angela asked, standing in front of the two newcomers. "Angela. Bradley. Charles. D … what _is_ your name, anyway?"

"Dierdre. It's gaelic or some shit like that. No, I doubt sound very fucking gaelic. Get over it." She leaned back against the bed, sizing up the latina beauty.

"I'm Eric," the brawny man said. "Vanguard, L4 implants."

"Not fair," Bradley groused quietly. "I only got L3."

"Flora, _not_ Florimel." She glared out through a loose fringe of black bangs. "I'm serious."

Angela sighed. "Right. The short version, as far as I know, is that something is causing different versions of Shepard – that is, _me_ – are popping into my universe." She frowned, pointing one hand each at the two newcomers. "When did you get here, anyway?"

"I have no idea," Eric rumbled. "Last thing I remember was throwing Chief Williams away from the beacon."

"Then it exploded, just like a batarian's head," Flora said, twisting a fist in front of her face dramatically.

"As fascinating as this is," Anderson interrupted grimly, "I need to know what happened down there on the surface. What happened to Nihlus? And the Prothean beacon, aside from 'it exploded'?"

In eerie and unintentional unison, all six of them spoke together, the cadence and tempo a flawless match, but the emotions clearly different. "There was another turian present, named Saren. He shot Nihlus in the back, and was clearly working with the geth." All six Shepard's blinked and exchanged nervous glances.

"I hereby assign Angela as spokesman for the group of you," Anderson uttered quickly, before any more creepy pod-people speaking could go on.

She glanced over her shoulder, and nodded. "If anyone had a different experience, then speak up. We landed, proceeding on foot towards the dig site. We spotted Chief Williams fleeing from several robotic drones. Jenkins rushed forward to support her, and was killed by combined firepower." She glanced over at Charles. "Charles helped us destroy the drones, the first spot he appeared. We continued forward, speaking to a few survivors from the dig site and the worker who saw Nihlus' murder.

"We took the tram over to the spaceport, finding Dierdre disarming the bombs placed by the geth. After disarming the rest of the explosives, we secured the beacon. It activated, attempting to do something to Chief Williams, and all four of us freed her from it, and then," she shrugged.

"Really bad dreams," Bradley muttered.

"The worst I've had since Mindoir," Charles said.

"Worse than being homeless in Berlin," Eric said.

Before he could speak up to stop it, Anderson was treated to another tour of unison creepy talk, only this one moved from person to person, mid-sentence without a break in the flow. "Synthetics, capturing and killing organics. Mutated versions of ourself, hunting us, tearing us apart. Planets burning in the night."

"As, ah, creepy as you find this, sir," Angela said, "I think we have it worse."

"We're the ones _saying_ it," Flora continued.

"Captain," Joker's voice broke in from the ceiling speaker, "we'll be docking at the Citadel in fifteen minutes. Ambassador Udina has already 'requested' your presence, and that of Commander Shepard. He didn't specify which one."

Anderson looked at Angela, then at the rest of the room, and promptly broke out in a manic grin. "Far be it for me to disappoint our illustrious ambassador! You heard the man, Commanders. Report to the embassy with me, and round up Williams and Alenko." _Whistling_, he strolled out of the med bay, a jaunty swing in his step.

"Anderson is _whistling_," Dierdre said. "He never _whistles_."

"He's usually pissy because I ripped some dumb enlisted schmuck a new one for not showing respect," Flora added.

Eric turned to Angela. "I'm going to guess your Anderson never had to bail you out with C-Sec after taking down six turians in a bar brawl." She gave him a sardonic look and a raised eyebrow. "I'll take that as a no," he sighed.

"I suppose we should all at least slightly clean up," Charles said. "After all, we'd all _hate_ to leave a poor impression on that pompous windbag."

"Agreed," five other voices said in unison, and they departed the medbay. From the back from, barely audible, Chakwas could be heard singing maudlin songs and talking to the bottle.

* * *

Udina stopped dead at the door to his own office, jaw hanging open. "Anderson, what the devil is this? I asked you to bring Commander Shepard, not half your damn crew!"

"I _am_ Commander Shepard," came seven voices.

"Oh shit, it's another one," Williams squeaked, instantly using Alenko as a human shield.

Udina stared in blank-faced confusion. "I don't … what is the meaning of this?" his usual bluster going down like the Titanic.

Angela stepped forward as Dierdre calmly engraved a 'G' on whoever the new girl was. "Right before we went down to the surface, another Commander Shepard appeared on board. Then two more appeared, one after the other, on Eden Prime."

"Three, Commander," Kaidan interrupted. "The big Viking-looking guy appeared when the artifact exploded."

She glanced at him, shrugged, and turned back to Udina. "Another one appeared in med bay when we woke up. And, apparently, one more just now." She looked at the new girl. "I'm Angela. You are?"

"Gina. Short for Genevieve." She gave a small wave.

"So. Shall we go see the Council now?" Angela asked sweetly.

Her only answer was Udina dropping to the floor in a faint. "I, ah, hope we can postpone?" she said rhetorically.

* * *

_Author's Footnote: More Sheps' next chapter. H is already decided, but I haven't done anyone until M, so I'll have to work those up. Tune in, um, probably next week, and in the meantime, please check out my other fics like __Lone Survivor__, __Mass Murderer__, __Reloaded__, and __Torment Effect__._


	3. Councilors and Krogan and Quarian oh my!

_Author's Note: As of this chapter, we're up to ten. If anyone hasn't seen it, google up "Mass Effect Ferret" for Havok's inspiration. And he's not the only non-human Shep I have planned. Thank you for reading and reviewing! The Shepard list will be updated later today, after I get home._

* * *

One glass of cold water, helpfully administered to his face by Gina, woke up Udina, who dried off and managed to get ahold of himself rather well, all things considered. Still liable to twitching whenever they started speaking in unison, he still led them down the Presidium to the elevator to the Council chambers. Needless to say, it was quite crowded, what with seven Shepards, two marines, Anderson, and Udina.

Stepping out into the gardens, they slowed their walk up the stairs, listening to two arguing turians. "I'm telling you, I need more time!"

"You don't _have_ more time, Vakarian. You are officially off this case."

"Fine. In the meantime, I'll be in the Wards, following down the leads that will still lead to something I _can_ do," the one called Vakarian said. He turned to stalk away, pausing at the sight of the crowd of humans. "Um, pardon me," he said, slipping around the edge of the group and heading for the elevator. The other turian, with an equally curious glance, walked to the transit station, calling an aircar.

"I wonder what that was about?" four Shepards said in unison as they moved up the stairs, the thin group of people already dispersing from the bizarre talking, and they paused at the last spot of stairs. "Everybody clear on me being the spokesperson?" Angela asked.

"No, but I think discretion is the better part of valor today," came a new voice from behind Eric, and they all turned around, staring in shock at the new Shepard. "At first I thought the turians were staring at you lot, but given the number of your species around the room, and the lack of mine, I am forced to come to a different conclusion. What was that for?" he said, stepping hurriedly back from Dierdre.

"Just a hunch," the redhead said, "your name starts with H, am I right?"

"Indeed. Commander Havok Shepard, Vanguard, Redwall Alliance," said the six-foot ferret with a bow. "May I get the short version?"

Unable to help herself, Flora reached out and petted him. "Oh my god, he's _so fluffy_!" she squealed. "Oh, I hope there's more Shepard's like him!" Ashley was hiding behind Kaidan again, nervously fingering her pistol, and Udina was gaping like a landed fish.

Bradley looked up at the smile, full of alarmingly sharp teeth. "Female versions of me, I can deal with. Black and Hispanic versions of me, I can deal with. But there's a goddamn _rodent_ version of me?"

"I," Havok said icily, "am a _mustelid_. Not a _rodent_."

"I keep pinching myself, but I'm not waking up," Gina said.

"Tell me about it. All these other Shepards are so _tiny_," Eric grumbled.

"Alright, alright! Enough!" Angela shouted. She glared around at her seven counterparts. "We still have to confront the Council about Saren. I am spokesperson. _Is that clear?_" Seven nods, in varying stages of reluctance, echoed back. "Williams, Alenko, remain in the background. Only unison we do should either be saying 'I am Commander Shepard,' when they protest, or discussing the Prothean vision." Sighing, she gestured for Udina and Anderson to lead them up the stairs.

The Council was usually a bunch of arrogant pissants, and they didn't disappoint her, already talking with Saren before they arrived. "Ambassador Udina," Valern protested, "We specifically asked only for Commander Shepard to be present for this."

All eight Shepards grinned (Havok drawing all three surprised looks) and replied in unison. "I _am_ Commander Shepard."

"Spirits," Sparatus said.

"By the Goddess," Tevos gasped.

"Highly illogical," Valern muttered.

"It's a trick!" Saren protested. "The Alliance knows their so-called 'evidence' is insufficient and is pulling out stage-show slight of hand to distract you."

"This isn't a trick," Udina said. "The furry one literally _appeared_ just over there, as we approached!" He waved an arm wildly towards the garden area and the rapid transit terminal.

"Councilors, the number of Shepards present doesn't change the facts. Saren was behind the attack on Eden Prime. He sabotaged the Prothean relic there." Anderson used his full captain's speech voice, carrying better than any of the Council did across the chamber. "Demanding that we find more evidence in the space of three hours is a feat the most skilled detectives would find impossible."

"Sour grapes from a failed Specter candidate," Saren sneered from his hologram, before it glitched and shrank down to half its size, with a matching grin from Flora. "This is a waste of our time."

"Comm, er, Ambassador, do you have any additional evidence to submit?" Sparatus said, feebly trying to draw the point of the audience back on topic.

"Not at this time," Udina said regretfully.

"Then we are dropping these allegations at this time," Tevos said. "Unless you have another topic for us to discuss, you are dismissed."

The hologram of Saren blinked out, and the crowd of Shepards descended the stairs. "That was an exercise in futility. Shepard," he started, only to be rattled by eight matching "Yes?" responses. "Shepard, do you have any other brilliant ideas for how to prove it was Saren?"

Angela turned to look at everyone else. "That turian seemed to have some ideas. How about if Ashley, Kaidan, Gina, and myself track him down in the wards. The rest of you follow Charles, see if C-Sec headquarters has any other information."

"Not me," Flora said, "I'm going to find out why that salarian is scanning the Keeper. Anyone else want to go with me?"

"I'm game," Dierdre responded. "We can contact everyone via omni-tool when we find out something."

"Um, sure," Angela responded. "I'm kind of curious about the Keepers myself, but it'll have to take back burner for now." They split up, heading in their different directions once the elevator reached the Presidium level again.

In the wards, Angela, Gina, Williams, and Kaidan, stopped outside the medical clinic. "Why would a turian come here?" Gina asked. "I mean, this neighborhood is mostly humans and salarians, aside from some shoppers."

"His lead must have brought him in here," Angela replied. Kaidan hit the door, and it opened to show the doctor being threatened by several armed thugs, with Vakarian hiding behind the low wall separating the clinic lobby from the treatment area. "Alright, drop the weapons and clear out, and we won't have to hurt you," she said loudly to draw their attention. So, naturally, the thug closest grabbed the doctor, putting his gun to her head.

"Get out of here, or I'll kill this bitch!" he snarled. Angela looked behind her at her three companions, then back to the three unarmored thugs, and raised an eyebrow. "I mean it!"

They all blinked when his weapon suddenly blinked red, beeping the "overheat" tone rapidly. Vakarian took the opportunity to shoot the thug between the eyes as he gaped at his pistol. Angela and Gina lost no time jumping the low wall, sabotaging the other thugs weapons and letting Ashley elbow slam them both into unconsciousness. "Thanks for the assist," came a new voice. "I'm Commander Shepard."

Ashley whirled around, raising her assault rifle. "Why won't they stop? They just keep coming!"

"Yeah. As it so happens, I'm _also_ Commander Shepard. So's she," jerking a thumb towards Gina, who waved cheerily. "I'm Angela, she's Gina, and I'm guessing you're an 'I' name," she said, staring at the woman's Indian features and the small Hindu symbol painted (or was it a tattoo?) on her forehead.

It took a few moments of silence before getting a response back. "I'm Inara," she finally said. "Two other Commander Shepards."

"Actually, you make number nine, but let's not worry about that for right now," Angela said. "Vakarian! What the hell were you thinking? You could have hit the doctor!"

The turian gaped at her, probably still trying to process the crowd of Shepards he saw earlier. "I would not. He was ten feet away, I could have made that shot from a hundred and still made it clean. I'm a trained sniper."

Grumpily, she stared at him for a moment before sighing. "Fine. We'll let it go for now. You were saying something in the Council chambers about needing more time to get the evidence against Saren?"

He nodded. "His agents were trying to kill a quarian on board, and she came here for treatment." Everyone turned to look at Doctor Michel.

"I did treat a quarian girl a few hours ago. She was hit with radioactive rounds." She gestured towards another part of the wards. "She mentioned something about going to Chora's Den and selling information to the Shadow Broker."

Vakarian took this badly. "There's a krogan on board, a merc. He's been hired by the Shadow Broker to take out Fist, the guy who runs Chora's Den." He started pacing back and forth.

"Fine, where's this krogan? Maybe one of my other Sheps can pick him up," Angela asked. "And what's your name, anyway? I can't go around calling you Vakarian all the time. It's awkward."

He chuckled, with that weird subharmonic turians had. "Garrus Vakarian. The krogan should be in C-Sec headquarters right now."

* * *

In C-Sec headquarters, three humans and one _Mustelid Sapiens_ stepped out and looked around. Off to one side, there was a krogan being hassled by a good half-dozen turians. "That must be him," Charles said, leaving the audio connection open. "We'll get him. I'm assuming even krogan enjoy having back-up."

"Good, keep me posted. We'll be waiting near Chora's Den after I check the shops. There's an alleyway nearby we can take cover in," Angela responded before clicking off. The four Shepards ambled over towards the krogan, listening to him threaten the C-Sec turians.

"Excuse me, are you the krogan mercenary hired to take out Fist?" Charles said calmly. The turians quickly decided not to get in the middle of it all, and backed away, motioning quietly for back-up.

"What of it? You think four humans are enough to stop me?" he threatened.

"Yes," declared Eric, at the same time Bradley said, "No," and a three-way glaring contest started up in ernest.

"We're not here to stop you," Havok said, "We're here to help you, actually. We need to save someone before Fist can kill them."

This caused the krogan to look at the ferret, his eyes narrow. "Never seen your species before. Who are you?"

All four of them grinned, Eric's slightly more bloodthirsty. "I'm Commander Shepard," they said in unison.

The krogan just blinked at them several times. "Humans are weird. So is whatever you are," he pointed at Havok. "But sure, what the hell. Let's go get Fist. I'm Urdnot Wrex."

"Nice to meet you, Urdnot," Charles said.

"Wrex. Urdnot is my clan name," he complained.

"Angela, we're on our way to Chora's Den," Charles reported as they moved to the rapid transit terminal. "The krogan, Urdnot Wrex, is with us."

"Roger. We'll be in the alley in a minute, so we'll back you up."

* * *

Angela stepped into the alley, in time to see a quarian confronting a turian and a pair of salarians. Upon catching sight of them, the quarian threw a grenade of some kind at the salarians, and ducked behind a set of crates. The turian tried firing on the girl, only to have his weapon explode from three simultaneous sabotage blasts. Then, to all of their surprise, the salarians were slammed to the floor heavily by a biotic. "That wasn't me," Inara said.

"Would you be Tali'Zorah?" a male voice said, and from behind where the quarian was hiding came a white-haired man, a ball of biotic energy rolling around his fingers. "Williams, Alenko, how did you get all the way over there?"

"Are those other humans with you?" Tali asked.

"I'm Commander Shepard, so are these two," Angela replied, gesturing to Gina and Inara. "I'm going to guess he's Commander J. Shepard."

He blinked at them several times before giving a quick bow. "Jared Shepard. I was unaware that I was … quite so attractive." Angela and Inara both gaped at him, while Gina grinned laviciously.

"Tali'Zorah, we actually came here to rescue you," Garrus said. "Word is you have evidence that Saren is a traitor to the Council."

The quarian's face mask turned around, taking in the whole group. "All four of you have the same last name? Are you related?"

Angela sighed. "It's a very long story." She keyed up her omni-tool to the sound of gunfire. "Charles? We have the quarian. Do you need help?"

"No, we're good. Eric and Wrex are having a tossing competition." There was a thud sound, and a single gunshot. "Seeing who can biotically hurl Fist's bodyguards the furthest. So far, Eric's winning."

"Hah, beat you by two feet!" Eric's voice came across clearly.

"That doesn't count, you ripped the legs off and threw them separately!" came a different voice, she guessed was the krogan.

Everyone in the alley blinked at that. "Ooookay then. Get his data, and meet us back at the embassy. I'll introduce you to the two new Shepards." Angela shook her head, and keyed up a different channel. "Dierdre, Flora, how's the Keeper hunting going?"

"We've found ten so far, he wants another ten. We also found his former partner, and convinced him to cooperate with data analysis," the redhead responded. "Flora only had to open his breathing filter once."

"Well, we have the evidence we need against Saren. Work your way towards the embassy, we'll rendezvous there and plan a search grid to find the rest of the Keepers." Angela shook her head silently to herself. "You can meet the two new Shepards then."

"Only two? Are they women or men?" Flora said.

Angela didn't respond, turning off the channel and taking stock. She now had four Shepards counting herself, two marines, a turian, and a quarian. "Let's go get two transit cars. I'm afraid to walk for fear of picking up Shepard number eleven." Wordlessly, she led them back to the transit point outside the clinic.


	4. A Visit to Therum

_Author's Note: More Shepards ahoy! Next chapter should see more non-human Shepards appear, but this one is (no doubt disappointing to you all) all humans. Lilitu Shepard is named as a shout-out to Myetel's "Spirit of Redemption", which I'd recommend for anyone who has a month of free time. As usual, the Who's Who will be updated later today. I'm open to name suggestions for N, O, S, T, and U, as long as you accept that I'm probably not going to use anything but the name. **3 Apr**: All Shepards have been named, thank you everyone!_

* * *

Back at the embassy, the three groups of Shepards met up, their numbers now bolstered by three aliens. Udina had opened a bottle of whiskey and was already a good quarter of the way through the bottle. "Ten of you now," he protested. "This just keeps getting better."

Angela almost agreed, then stopped to do a quick head count. "Yes, ten of us. If it continues, we're going to be up to twenty-six soon, and I just hope it stops there." She shook her head and tried to organize her thoughts. "This quarian girl we rescued has evidence that implicates Saren. He was desperate enough to try and have two different teams of mercs try to kill her."

"That's good news, I think," Anderson said. "Let's hear this evidence." They listened to Tali's explanation of finding the geth memory core, interrupted by questions about the geth and her Pilgrimage. Finally, Saren's voice came through clearly, along with the mysterious woman. "This should get the Council on our side," the captain declared triumphantly.

"Let's just hope we can present the evidence without another ten Shepards showing up," Udina groused. Still holding his bottle, he led them back to the Council chambers, having to actually split the group between two painfully long elevator rides. They emerged, a slightly tipsy Udina barging right past the Volus ambassador and playing the audio file as though hurling a knife at the Council. "You wanted proof? There it is."

The ten Shepards stood there, listening to the argument go back and forth between the Council and Udina, until finally Jared and Eric stepped forward at the same time. "For fuck's sake," they blurted out, "can we skip the political posturing bullshit? Just make me a Spectre and let us track down Saren."

"By 'me' you better mean 'us', gringo," Flora threatened.

"Shepards, Councilors, please," Angela said, trying rapidly to gain control of the situation. "We still don't know why there's so many different versions of me, but as the original, I echo the sentiment," she glared at the two pale-haired male copies, "though not the words, of my counterparts. Let us track down Saren."

"And what about the other Shepards?" Sparatus said. "Granting humanity one Spectre, maybe, though I still think it's too soon for this. But ten of you?"

"Technically," Gina said, "We're all Commander Shepard."

"I don't count as human," Havok added. "So that's only nine."

"Are you telling me none of the other Spectres have assistants, squads, back-up?" Anderson asked.

Velarn smiled. "Not _officially_, no. Most times, a single elite agent is better than a squad or a flotilla."

"Fine," Udina proclaimed, sounding as though he was giving the Council concessions. "Make Commander Shepard a Spectre. Just conveniently leave out the first name."

"You mean, give you one Spectre on paper," Tevos murmured, "but in reality, practically a dozen."

"The way they keep popping up, we'll have a full company," Williams muttered, quiet enough only Wrex caught the sentiment.

"This is a naked power grab," Sparatus complained, but outvoted by the other two Councilors, lapsed into silence.

All ten Shepards spoke the oath in unison, the sheer sense of _off-ness_ reverberating through the chamber with extra power. Once finished, they paused at the top of the elevator. "Anderson, I'm going to need your help," Udina ordered, pausing to take another swig of his whiskey. "Shepards, meet us at the Normandy later. Run whatever errands you need to."

Angela let them go before turning to the rest of the group. "Dierdre, you said you needed to scan more Keepers, right?" Pulling up maps, they marked off different places to search, splitting up the non-Shepards between groups, ending with Angela, Havok, and Tali being the only non-Keeper-hunting ones, headed instead to browse the markets for affordable upgrades. "Everyone's area should take about an hour at most, so we'll meet in C-Sec Academy in an hour."

"Understood," came nine Shepard voices back to her. Everyone except Eric, Inara, and Williams crowded into the elevator, stepping out onto the Presidium. Almost in unison, the eight Shepards paused just ouside the elevator, looking back out the length of the arm that extended to the middle of the station. "Something wrong?" Garrus asked.

They all frowned with nearly the same expression. "I can't explain it," they unisoned, "but I feel … drawn."

"Gee, that's not creepy at all," Kaidan muttered. "Can it wait until later?"

They shook off the feeling, though at least they all did so in a different manner, and split off their separate ways.

* * *

An hour later, they met up at the Normandy's docking slip above C-Sec academy, on the inside of the ring of the Presidium. "Hah, there's the last one!" Havok cried, skittering over to it on all-fours, and running an omni-tool over it. "Quest complete!"

"Really?" Flora muttered. "Who talks like that?"

"Those of us with a good flair for the dramatic," Jared crooned over her shoulder, causing the Hispanic Shepard to edge away. "Or crazy people, but they're often one and the same."

"Shepards," Anderson said. "I'm turning the Normandy over to Angela. Try not to scratch the paint," he told his now-former XO.

"I've given Pressly the data we have on recent geth activity, and a lead on the Matriarch on the recording," Udina proclaimed. "So get out there, catch him, and don't let any of yourself screw things up." He lifted the bottle, draining the last two swallows out, then hurling it out of the atmosphere field to spin off into vacuum. "One of you would be enough of a headache, let alone ten." Still grumbling, he wobbled off back towards the elevator.

Bradley nudged Inara. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I think so," she replied, "but I don't know of any elcor escort services."

"Anderson," Angela asked, ignoring the byplay behind her, "Are you really alright with this?"

"Relax, I'm now officially Kahoku's aide, so it's not like my career is over." He huffed out a sigh.

"It just feels that way, doesn't it?" Charles sympathized.

"I'll look over the data as we're departing," Angela said. "But personally, I'm leaning towards tracking down the Matriarch's daughter."

"It's all up to you now," Anderson said, clapping her on the shoulder. "Go do some good out there."

Ten Shepards, two Marines, and three aliens trooped on board. After the first five seconds, Angela overrode the sterilization procedures, just so they could get people onto the ship. They all circled the galaxy map, seeing the shock on Pressly's face as the number of Shepard's nearly doubled. She started counting, only to be interrupted. "I must have missed the memo on additional crew," came a voice almost deep enough to rival Eric.

Deirdre and Gina fought briefly over who got to engrave the 'K' on the newest Shepard, and Williams fled the bridge, whimpering. "Alright, now we're up to Shepard number eleven. I'm Angela, everyone else sound off."

They ran through the alphabet until they reached the new one, who glared at her before finally muttering, "Kohana." He flicked a black braid with two raven feathers over his shoulder. "I take it you know what's going on?"

"Welcome to my universe. Random alternate Shepards keep popping up like a bad twentieth century sci-fi vid, and all the records say I'm the original." She pulled up the data Udina had left for them. "Right now, we're off to scour the Artemis Tau cluster for some sign of Matriarch Benezia's daughter. There's four systems, so where should we start?"

A jumble of voices came over, so she took tallies one at a time. "Alright, Knossos it is, then Sparta, Macedon, and Athens." She frowned then, as something occurred to her. "Slight problem. There's eleven of us, plus three new alien crew, and no way to fit everyone into the sleeper pods or the captain's cabin."

"I'll talk to the quartermaster," Deirdre said. "He can clear out one of the storage bays, and we can crowd a few extra mattresses into the cabin."

"Hot racking again," Inara said balefully. "How fun."

"Don't remind me," Eric grumbled.

"We'll make the best of it," Angela ground out.

"Who's going down when we find the chit?" Jared inquired.

"Kohana, what's your training?"

"I am a Vanguard."

"Alright. Kohana and Inara will go down with me," Angela said. "Depending on surface conditions, I might have Joker come in low enough to let the rest of you offload."

"The Mako can fit five," Deirdre waspishly pointed out.

"And I'm paranoid that another Shepard is going to appear," Angela countered.

"As much as I'd love to see how everyone handles in the field," Havok said, "I daresay it's time for grub." Half the other Shepards agreed with him, and mobbed the crew deck.

Angela leaned on the railing around the galaxy map, resting her face in her hands. "Ah, Angela?" Pressly asked.

"What is it, XO?"

"I'd like to request a transfer. One of you is all I can handle." She groaned and slumped to the floor.

"Cheer up," Charles Shepard said, clapping her on the shoulder. "At least this whole thing isn't based on, say, the Japanese alphabet."

"Or the Turian one," Garrus added, pausing at the door. "I don't think the Citadel is ready for forty-two Garrus Vakarians." For some unfathomable reason, that just made her groan louder.

* * *

The landing was fairly uneventful, cruising along next to a lake of molten sulfur like it was normal, blowing apart armatures and running over smaller geth, occasionally letting Inara Overload one by leaning out of the hatch. The first guardhouse they stopped at was, aside from the rocket turrets, also uneventful. "Must you constantly bounce us around?" Kohana groused from the gun turret.

"Hey, it's the easiest way to dodge those rockets at close range!" Angela responded, sending the Mako jumping another dozen feet up.

"We have shields! You're ruining my aim!"

"Now now, children," Inara said, "We're all Commander Shepard, in our own way." She leaned out the hatch, causing one of the rockets to blow up inches out of the turret. "Surely we can get along?"

"Bah," both of them responded in unison.

They cruised around to the side, running over several more geth, before disembarking. "Alright, you two take the building on the left, I'll take the one on the right," Angela ordered.

"By yourself?" Kohana raised an eyebrow behind his visor.

"If L Shep decides to show up, I have a feeling it'll be here," she muttered. Naturally, Murphy's Law was listening, and she had to deal with a geth by herself, with no backup. She blew out its shields, shorted out its weapon, and then blew its head off. "Hah!"

She headed back outside, to find the newest Shepard leaning against the Mako, sniping geth emerging from the other pair of guardhouses. "Why? Why now?" She complained.

"Identify yourself!" the new one responded.

"Oh, get over yourself," Angela spat, calmly etching an 'L' on the new girl. "Hah, I think we're back up to even numbers!"

"I'm Commander Shepard, and I demand you identify yourself!"

Kohana and Inara had emerged by then. "We're Commander Shepard," the three of them said in unison, making L blink. "You have a name?" Kohana demanded.

"I'm Lilitu," she said. "What the hell?"

"We can explain later. Get in the Mako," Angela said. "We have an asari somewhere, if the geth haven't gotten to her yet."

"They've only been here a day and a half," the lone male noted dryly, "surely an untrained civilian could have managed to hold off an entire dropship or two of rogue synthetics." He fired a shot at said dropship, to no apparent effect.

"Let me guess," Inara queried the new girl, "infiltrator training?"

"Did the sniper rifle give it away?"

"There's a rockfall up here," Angela warned them. "We're going to have to walk from here on out."

"Just what I wanted to do today," Lilitu grumbled, "stroll through a lovely molten hellhole and get shot at."

"Did you really have anything better to do?" Kohana asked, before charging a trio of geth, slamming one of them tumbling over the rocks.

"Can we quit with the bad-ass one-liners and just scrap these things?" Angela said, causing another one to blow up.

"You're taking all the fun out of it, sweetie," Inara said, patting her on the back before shooting one in the head. "Get into the spirit of things!"

They blasted their way through two dozen platforms, then a colossus. "If that asari is dead, I'm going to wring her neck," Kohana muttered through clenched teeth, while Lilitu applied medigel to him.

Inside the facility was much calmer, until they reached the bottom of the elevator, to find the asari trapped in a force field. "Don't worry, we'll get you out of here," said yet another Shepard.

"After all," Angela said dryly, "there's five of us here." He turned around, raising an eyebrow. "You must be M Shepard."

"I can't wait until we get to Q," Lilitu muttered.

"Why's that?" Inara asked.

"I'm going to guess you're not a James Bond fan?"

"Never heard of him."

"Would you all please figure out a way to get me out of here?" Liara cried from behind the force field.

"We're on it," they chorused, and proceeded to drop down to the cavern floor, slaughtering a krogan and several geth, looting everything portable from their corpses, and moving towards the mining laser. "Actually," the new one said, "I have an idea."

"What's your name, anyway?" Angela asked.

"Marid. Not Mohammed. I might be Arabic, but I'm not Muslim." He cleared his throat. "Judging by your reactions, I'm guessing you weren't surprised to see me."

Inara gestured to the engraved letter on her armor. "You could say that."

"So, there's another, what, eight Commander Shepards?" Angela nodded. "All with different skills and training."

"Get to the point," Kohana muttered.

"How many biotics?"

Angela paused to consider. "So far? Two adepts, three vanguards, two sentinels." He raised his own finger. "Three sentinels."

"They drop off the ship, we all hit that force field with biotic force – warps, singularities, slams, whatever. If that doesn't work, _then_ we activate the giant laser beam." He waved one hand at the ruins. "Just thinking, we _might_ not want to utterly wreck one of the few known surviving Prothean ruins."

Kohana rolled his eyes, but both Angela and Lilitu nodded. "That's a pretty good plan, actually. Shepard to Normandy." Static greeted them. "Apparently, you should have thought of it ten minutes ago, though."

"Ten minutes ago, I was on the surface with Wrex and Tali."

"You brought the quarian?" Inara asked, clearly intrigued.

"Who better to destroy them than one of the people who built them?" Kohana added sarcastically. "Can I fire the damn thing now?"

They backed off a little, and he fiddled with the control panel. "Alright, here goes. Imma firin mah laser!" he cried as he stabbed the big red button, rapidly turning chunks of rock into dust and raising the temperature by at least twenty degrees Celsius. "Can we get the hot blue alien babe and get out of here now?"

"Gladly," Angela muttered. They rose through the place, took down the intruder field that captured her, and moved to make their escape, only to find themselves blocked by two krogan and three more geth. "Look, we don't have time for this."

"Give us the asari," the lead krogan complained.

"Your mama was a varren," Kohana shouted, and combat was ever so briefly joined, as Liara joined her own biotics to their group, the second krogan being flung off to land several stories below and vanishing under a wash of molten sulfur.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I believe it's time to evacuate!" Inara shouted, propelling Liara up the ramp. They reached surface, piling onto the Normandy and flying away seconds before the entire installation sank into the ground.

"Commander? Did you want to update the Council?" Joker came over the intercom to the cargo bay as they all shed their armor and weapons, leaving them in a mostly-tidy pile on Williams' overcrowded armory station.

"Give them the short version – we're up to thirteen Shepards, we rescued the girl, and the geth destroyed the Prothean ruins," she responded wearily.

"Hey," Kohana complained, "I should get credit for that." She shot him a murderous glare and limped for the elevator.

* * *

_Author's Footnote: Yes, all you Garrus fangirls are probably squealing happily at the mere thought of 42 different Garrus Vakarians. You'll either have to wait for the Fistful sequal, or write your own._


	5. Side Questing

_Author's Note: Another non-human Shepard finally shows up. This one is mostly a few side missions to introduce more Sheps, but Noveria will be our destination next chapter! Wanderer D, P Shepard is for you._

* * *

Back on board, they started cruising around the various systems. To Angela's consternation, it seemed like every single system they visited necessitated a ground mission. Distress beacons, Cerberus outposts, or "requests" from Admiral Hackett. Sighing, she got off the comm. with yet another request. "Hmm, Jared and Marid, you're with me. Kaidan, you too," she called into the mess. The two other Shepards put down the cards, folding out of the game of gin rummy.

"What's up, Comm, er, Angela?" Kaidan asked, picking his way through the dozen Shepards.

"Apparently there's a bunch of L2 biotics who've taken one of the Senators from Parliament hostage," she explained as they followed her up the stairs. "Kaidan, I want you there as an L2; Jared and Marid, you're both biotic and will be good for additional backup."

"So you're taking two Sentinels, an Adept, and yourself as an Engineer?" Marid asked. "That's … unusual."

"If you don't think you can handle it," Angela retorted.

"Oh no, no, I'm in." He held up his hands placatingly.

"This should be fascinating," Jared said. "How are we going to take down these terrorists?"

"I was hoping we could talk them down," Angela said.

"How … boring," the adept said.

"Hey, most of the L2s didn't ask to end up the way they did," Kaidan said. "You think I like having killer migraines every couple of days?"

"Ease down, K," Marid said. "We'll do this with as little loss of life as possible."

"Here's hoping," Angela said as Joker pulled up to join airlocks with the floating freighter. Apparently, no one was looking out the windows to spot their approach, and they merged with the other ship with hardly a bump. They stormed into the ship in a perfect diamond formation, Jared leading and Angela in the rear.

The biotics in the larger bay were openly hostile, letting loose with gravity slams and small-arms fire, which they returned swiftly. Jared's superior implants and skill proved their worth here, tossing the struggling biotics aside, enough to restrain many of them long enough to slap handcuffs on. They moved up to the front of the ship, checking the empty crew bay and cockpit before pausing outside the last door.

Angela nodded to the others, hitting the door button. "He's the man who can help you get out of this," echoed a cultured British voice, "and you're not doing other biotics any favors by holding him hostage like this."

The senator and the terrorist holding a shotgun to his head both blinked, looked at each other, and then back to the man in N7 armor standing inside the room. "What is this? Some kind of trick to get my hopes up? I already promised to reopen the reparations bill!" Burns protested.

"Look, you and the rest of you, just get back!" the man with the shotgun threatened, hand trembling. "I don't know how you just appeared there, but I'm not giving up that easily."

"I want to help you get out of this," the British voice said again, and as though waiting for the opportunity, all four of them said in unison, "I'm Commander Shepard." He paused, turning slowly and looking over his shoulder at the group of them in the doorway. "Well, isn't this unexpected. Kaidan, you're an L2, why don't you have a chat with these gentlemen while we speak in the hallway." He stepped calmly out, and the other three Shepards uniformly shoved Kaidan inside the room.

"Angela Shepard. This is Jared and Marid. You must be 'N'."

"Neville Reginald Shepard, charmed." As she extended her omni-tool to etch the letter into his armor, he actually took her hand and bowed over it. "I daresay you seem to be taking this quite calmly. What happened to Wrex?"

"He was down in the cargo bay, arguing philosophy with Havok, last I saw," Jared added. "Havok's a ferret."

Neville blinked at this, the effect quite odd behind the carefully etched monocle on his helmet visor. "A … ferret? That discusses philosophy?"

"He's rather charming," Marid said, "but it is odd to talk to a ferret in N7 armor who's taller than I am."

"Smashing. So, any idea how many of us Sheps there are? Or why?"

"Not a clue," Angela muttered. "But I'm just praying it stops at twenty-six." The Brit considered this for a moment before nodding. "Kaidan, you done in there, or do I need to call the other ten Commanders Shepard?"

"I think we've come to an agreement," Alenko said. "Chairman Burns, if you could head out that way, we'll bring you back through the Citadel in a day or so."

"But, the guy, just appeared, and the accent, and he wasn't there a minute ago," Burns rambled as Kaidan took him by the elbow and gently escorted him along. "He just appeared! Like a magic trick, only not magic, and the voices," he faded out of hearing range as the Shepards collected the weapons and Angela disabled the propulsion.

* * *

Six hours later, they received another priority from Hackett, detouring out to some planet in the middle of nowhere to find a former Alliance officer, set up with his own personal cult. Angela sighed and looked at the list of counterparts to decide who to bring. "Oh hell, might as well get it over with," she muttered. "Deirdre and Havok, hit the Mako!"

The three of them cruised around the planet, taking out a thresher maw, _without_ leaving the protective shell of the Mako, to Havok's extreme disappointment. "Come on, don't tell me the thrill, the exhilaration, doesn't call to you!" the ferret complained from the gunnery turret.

"You stupid tube rat," Deirdre mocked him, "that thing would have eaten the whole damn vehicle if it came up underneath us, and you want to take it mano a mano?"

"I agree with the redhead," Angela added, "minus the tube rat comment. Nobody in their right mind would take on one of those on foot."

The ferret sniffed disdainfully. "Wrex has."

"I rest my case," Deirdre said. "Hey, mercenaries! Run them down!"

"Last time I did that, Garrus bitched for two hours about having to pick fleshy bits out of the undercarriage," Angela said. "Now, these guys, we can fight on foot."

"Once more into the breach!" Havok cried. "Let slip the dogs of war!"

"I wonder if his universe actually has dogs?" Deirdre wondered, sniping from underneath the Mako and sending a salarian tumbling backwards missing the top of his helmet. "Hah, suck on that, slimeface!"

"If they do, they probably actually play poker," Angela said, overloading a turian's shields and putting three rounds in his head.

"Huh?"

"Guess you never saw that painting. Never mind."

Piling back in the Mako, they paused only to mark some promising ore loads, and finally pulled up in front of Kyle's compound. "Alright. Let's get in there and talk him into giving up."

"Why?" Deirdre asked. "Demand his surrender, and if he doesn't, we blow them away. Preferably from orbit."

"You seem to be quite lacking any inherent honor," Havok chided her as he disembarked.

"Honor usually leads to death, and when it comes to death, I prefer to dish it out from long range," the redhead muttered.

Angela managed to get them peaceful entry to the compound, and they headed to the rear of the building. Opening the door to Kyle's sanctum, Angela stepped inside and greeted him. "I'm Commander Shepard," she said, being echoed with a faint Russian accent.

"Another one for the collection!" Havok said, and Kyle stared at the group of them like he feared he was losing his mind.

"I'm Angela Shepard," she tried again, "and I'm here about the two Alliance negotiators who vanished."

"Cough 'em up and nobody has to get hurt," Deirdre said.

"Desist, lady," Havok muttered.

"What … who are you? What is _that_?" he pointed a shaking hand at Havok. "Can't you people just leave us alone?"

"C'mon, Major," the new Shepard said. "Torfan was a bloody mess, and you need help from it. You can come with us and get treatment, or," she reached up and tapped the sniper rifle on her back, "a whole lot of people are going to suffer. Again." She looked pensive, putting one finger to her mouth in an obviously feigned attempt to look innocent. "I wonder how long they'll survive when I march them out to the ship without suits?"

"Are all Infiltrators bloodthirsty lunatics, or did I just get lucky with you two?" Angela growled. "I am not marching unarmed prisoners out an airlock!"

"It's part of the training," Deirdre shot back. "Two part lesson, 'Why Ethics Suck,' and 'How to be Amoral and Like It.'"

"Things are just going to get worse from here if I don't, aren't they?" Kyle broke in.

"More than likely," Havok said calmly. "So long as the person responsible for the disappearance of the Alliance officers steps forward, there's no reason to punish anyone else in the compound."

"But you should know better than anyone," the Russian Shepard continued, "the lengths that the Alliance will go to. It would be _such_ a pity for anything to happen _here_," she added, her voice dripping with false sympathy.

Kyle drew himself up to attention. "May I please have the chance to say goodbye to my followers?"

"Of course," Angela said graciously, grabbing the newcomer by the shoulder and pulling her out of the room. "What's your name?"

She grinned saucily. "Commander Shepard. What's yours?" One hand started caressing up the side of Angela's armor.

Swatting away the hand irritably, Angela activated her omni-tool and etched an 'O' into the armor. "First name. I'm Angela, this is Deirdre and Havok. You can meet the rest of the Commanders Shepard when we get back on board the Normandy."

The new girl sighed dramatically, and started slowly walking towards the exit. "Oksana Shepard. Are we going to spend all day here? I'd like to find out what's going on here, and we can't do that sitting around on this dirtball."

Fighting the urge to rub her face through her helmet, Angela followed, muttering imprecations to herself.

* * *

The next day went by without, to Angela's great surprise, another Shepard appearing. She took out two criminal hideouts, recovered some ancestral krogan armor from a turian of ill repute, and finally stopped in to see Helena Blake, who had given her the coordinates of those criminal hideouts in the first place.

With some reluctance, she piled Lilitu and Neville into the Mako, and cruised the surface for a while, collecting mineral surveys and another cool turian insignia before pulling up in front of the base. "So, what are we expecting from the lady?" Neville said. "Bribe attempts? Blubbering? Maybe a snide, 'Good night, good work, I'll most likely kill you in the morning'?"

Lilitu snickered, checking her pistol and sniper rifle before clambering out of the vehicle. "It's like she thinks Spectres just take orders from crime lords all over the galaxy."

Angela shrugged. "Well, there is Saren as an example. It's not like I've had a chance to talk to any other Spectres." She flexed her gun hand before opening the door.

Inside, the three of them stopped dead in their tracks, staring. "And you think you can just order me to disband my organization on your say so?"

"You're darn tootin'! You shut it down today. You're already known for slavery and worse. You need to get out of the crime business before," the feminine voice dropped to a whisper more appropriate for a turian, or maybe Batman, "someone decides to foreclose on your place of business."

"By the Queen's whiskers," Neville whispered. "This is just too precious!"

"This is all your fault," Lilitu whispered to Angela. "I'm sure if this whole alternate-Shepard thing were based on someone like Charles this wouldn't be happening.

Angela just turned, faced the wall, and started banging her helmet forehead. "I'm going *bang* to have *bang* to apologize *bang* to Ashley *bang*."

Helena Blake leaned around the doorframe just far enough to see what was going on. "I'm sorry, I don't think we've been introduced. Mind telling me what you're doing in my apparently not so secret headquarters?"

Angela (interrupted slightly with a bang in the middle), Lilitu, and Neville, all chimed in, "I'm Commander Shepard."

The armored unicorn turned to look at them. "Hey, that's _my_ line!"

"And yet, none of you look like the two Commander Shepards I met on the Citadel," Helena mused. "I suppose it's horribly cliché, but I have to ask what you plan on doing if I don't decide to mend my wicked ways and abandon my crime syndicate," she added sarcastically.

"I'm going to shove a lightning bolt so far up your ass you'll taste static!" the unicorn threatened.

Everyone present stared at her. "Um, sure. What she said," Lilitu added. "Except I'm more likely to just stalk you and blow your head off from three hundred meters."

"Alright, you've convinced me. If nothing else, I'm disbanding just to ensure I never find out how many Commander Shepards are out there," Helena added. "In fact, as a gesture of good faith," she turned and barked orders at several of her mercenaries, two of whom came from the back carrying a crate which proved to be full of experimental weapon mods.

"Thank you, and please for the love of God, who is apparently taking a personal interest in tormenting me," Angela muttered, "don't ever let me see you again."

"I plan on finding myself a very deep hole to crawl into," Helena said sincerely.

"Good. C'mon, Pony Shepard, let's get moving."

"My _name_," the unicorn said acerbically, "is Polarity."

"Does that have something to do with the paint mark on your flank?" Neville asked politely as they moved to depart the building.

"That's my cutie mark, it finally showed up during basic training," she said happily. "Say, I don't suppose you stashed my Garrus and Tali somewhere?"

"Not yours, no, but hers are on board the Normandy," Lilitu said.

"Oh good, I'm glad Garrus didn't get lost. He's such a _stud_," Polarity gushed, causing Neville to walk right into the edge of the doorway.


	6. Anoleis Is A Dick

_Author's Note: So, Noveria at last! Only two new Shepards this time around, Noveria is taking longer to write than I thought it would, I haven't even gotten them outside yet! Still, I hope you'll enjoy the two newcomers. Reviews are always appreciated!_

* * *

Angela decided she'd spent enough time running around doing errands. Sure, stopping biotic terrorists and crime syndicate leaders was important and everything, and her lead on Noveria probably wasn't going anywhere, but really, enough was enough. An impartial outside observer, if they could read her thoughts, probably would find it amusing that it took a fight between Havok, Polarity, and Charles, over what constituted "proper" food, to bring her to this decision.

Angela had actively avoided the last handful of ground missions, sending down two or three Shepards at a time, pairing them off with her non-human crew to take down some geth outposts. It had been time well spent; she got to learn more about the Shepards who stayed, the aliens got time integrating themselves into the crowd of Shepards, and Tali got some brand new encrypted geth data to take home. Plus, loads of salvage and weapons the quartermaster was struggling to fit in, which was yet another reason to stop and Noveria.

"A mouse is only the size of my hoof," Polarity said, loudly enough to break into Angela's train of thought. "How the heck can you feed four people on one?"

"In your world, maybe. Grandmother still owns a mouse farm, grows them the size of Wrex's hump," Havok interjected before tearing off a mouthful of chicken. "Tastes kind of like this 'chicken' only more salty."

"You should have brought a couple with you," the krogan rumbled from the next table over. "I'm willing to try just about anything."

"Anything?" Garrus asked skeptically.

"I've heard that krogan are the only people capable of eating turian cuisine," Eric said, "though they don't get anything but a bellyache out of it."

"Turian food tastes like crap, compared to asari food, but it's still better than the mainstay of Tuchankan food."

"I'm afraid to ask, but I'm going to anyway," Lilitu muttered. "What mainstay?"

The krogan stuffed a whole biscuit in his mouth and swallowed it. "Still-breathing varren."

"Alright, enough!" Angela said, pressing her palms to her eyes. She could still hear the click of credit chits being exchanged along with Deirdre's mocking giggle. "We're heading for Noveria. Everyone gear up and be ready."

"Everyone?" Oksana asked.

"Are you deaf, Ruskie?" Jared murmured through a mocking grin. "Of course all of us. One Shepard, they might stall. All of us, with our alien cohort as backup?"

"Just … get everyone ready. Bradley, come up to CIC when we're good to go," she snarled, dumping the tray into the sterilizer and dodging around Polarity to get to the stairs.

The CIC, lacking a dozen plus Shepards, was comparatively quiet, and she stepped up to the galaxy map with a sense of relief. She couldn't even retreat to her quarters, seeing as it now housed Deirdre, Flora, Gina, and Inara. She was damn tempted to swap out Gina if the French tart didn't quit moaning so damn loudly while "meditating."

"Pressly, Joker, take us to Noveria," she ordered, "fastest possible speed."

"Aye aye," the navigator responded, and they headed for the nearest relay.

* * *

They arrived on Noveria in short order, and she marched out at the head of a 22 person group. Angela led, flanked by Jared and Charles, with Wrex at her back, and everyone else straggling behind her. Despite no deliberate formation, everyone had quite nearly banded together in groups of four or five, and it amused her to look back to see Liara and Garrus flanking Williams with Havok and Neville cheerfully chattering away at the rear of their mob.

At the doors, the four security guards looked distinctly uncomfortable. "I'm sorry, but Noveria policy states clearly that you're all going to have to surrender your weapons before we can allow you entry."

"You're going to use a syringe and take all the eezo out of my body?" Jared asked, deceptively calm as he played with a ball of biotic energy.

"Huh?" the blond sidekick asked.

"Exactly. Angela, are we going to take this from them?" the adept responded blandly, fixing her with a stare. Behind Angela came the distinct sounds of multiple weapons being charged for combat, and one of the security guards let out a small whimper.

"Stand down, stand down! For the love of money, don't start a firefight!" came a desperate voice over an intercom, echoing through the security guards' omin-tools. "Council Spectres are authorized to carry weapons. Um, which one of you is the Spectre?"

Sixteen mouths grinned (the unicorn was a little hard to tell) and sixteen voices said in unison, "I'm Commander Shepard." The air seemed to ripple out from them like a shockwave at the force of the declaration, and only the asian woman before them did not flinch.

There were several moments of silence, before the intercom voice spoke again. "Matsuo, maybe I should speak to them inside." With an obviously feigned show of reluctance, the security guards stopped barring their way, and let them inside.

Up a short flight of stairs, behind some weapon scanners that went berserk, was a secretary in a pink dress. "Commander … Shepard?" she asked hesitantly, only to be put off as all sixteen of them nodded. "Gianna Parasini, assistant to Administrator Anoleis. He'd like to speak to you as quickly as possible about your business here on Noveria."

"Some of us will be around to talk to him," Angela assured her. "Unless you think I need the whole effect?"

"No, no, more than a handful of you would probably make his heart explode." Parasini held up her hands defensively, then lowered them. "On second thought, maybe you should."

"I like her," Kohana said as they moved into the facility at large.

"Can we get back outside where it's comfortable?" Eric asked, making several other Shepards glare at him.

"Alright, listen up," Angela said loudly. "Bradley, Eric, Inara, Wrex, you're with me, we'll talk to Anoleis. Neville, take Alenko and Williams, Deirdre, Flora, and Havok, and do some shopping. Charles, take Gina, Liara, Kohana, and Lilitu, and see if you can pick up any rumors at the bar down that way. Jared, take everyone else and scout our transportation options." They split up, and Angela led her group towards the office of whichever pretentious asshole ran the place.

Anoleis was a salarian, so he looked like Wrex and Eric could probably tear him in half bare-handed. (Actually, as she thought about it, they probably _could_.) "I'm not amused by practical jokes, Commander," he groused. "Your little stunt out in the docking bay was well rehearsed. State your business so I can get back to mine."

They all tried to talk their way past his obstructionism, to no avail, even when Eric actually did offer to see if his arms were detachable. Feeling rather annoyed after twenty minutes of pointless debate, they moved to the outer office. "Tell me why I can't go back there and play 'Pin the knife on the salarian,'" Eric complained.

Angela sighed as Wrex started nodding along. "Because we are supposed to be more than a thug with a license to do anything for the Council."

"I find myself in rare agreement with Eric," Inara said quietly, pulsing her own biotics.

"I can offer you another option," Parasini said quietly, gulping as all four Shepards fixed her with the same gaze.

"Please, explain," Bradley said eagerly. "I'd rather not tear his arms off, but we can't have ourselves impeded."

"Anoleis is crooked, he's been embezzling more than is acceptable. There's a turian in the bar with evidence to convict him," Parasini said quickly. "If you get the evidence, I'll get you a garage pass."

"Done," Angela said quickly. As they left the office, she activated her omni-tool and called Charles, explaining the situation.

"Yeah, we noticed him," the soldier responded. "Seemed quite depressed. I think maybe we can help cheer him up."

"Let me know," she said, turning it off and turning to Neville's approaching group. The Englishman looked annoyed, while the two women Shepards looked fairly happy. "What's wrong with you?"

"These two," he pointed at Deirdre and Flora, "decided to take up smuggling."

"We were well paid for it," the redhead protested, "better us than someone else."

"Quite shameful," Havok protested.

"Gah, whatever. We have to get some evidence, so we can get a garage pass and head out to the labs where Benezia went," Angela informed them. "Let's head over towards the garage."

They met up with the garage and the bar teams, quickly laying out the security on the vehicles and the rent-a-thugs trashing Lorik's office. "We could always just kill the security guard," Oksana suggested. "There's only the one." Several Shepards turned to glare at her while a few others nodded thoughtfully. "It's just a thought."

"Look, there's twenty three of us, I think we can take whoever's up in that office, collect the evidence, and go on our way fairly quickly." There was a pause, then a quick check around before Gina, Deirdre, and Oksana all moved at the same moment to try and engrave the new Shepard.

"No reaction? No 'who are all these people'?" Charles asked in disappointment.

"Commander Quistis Shepard," the newcomer said, "and I kind of figured that as long as you're all with Liara, you must be ok. Right sweetie?"

"Sweetie?" the asari asked in confusion. "Have you confused me for someone else?"

The new redhead draped one arm across Liara's shoulders, causing a quick blush and a faint look of panic to rise on her face. "After all those times I came down to med bay to talk to you, all forgotten so quickly?"

"AHEM," Angela spat out. "We have a _mission_? Can we please keep the _flirting_ and the _touching_ to a _professional_ level right now?" Blocked by Eric's body, she didn't see Gina and Jared separate hands. "The office is this way, right?"

Still muttering, she checked her pistol as they moved forward, only to be balked by the incredibly tiny elevator. "For crying out loud," she complained. "Fine, Charles, Quistis, Jared, Neville, Williams – first load. Eric, Wrex, Havok, Polarity, next. Everyone else, as you can fit." The first six crowded into the elevator, taking the mercifully short ride up two stories to the office.

They emerged into a short hallway, blocked by two security guards. "This office is secured! Get the hell out of here!"

Charles stepped forward, his assault rifle lined up perfectly on the guard's head. "You seem a decent fellow," he said calmly. "I'd hate to kill you."

Jared stepped up to flank him, the ball of biotic energy growing larger as he tossed it from one hand to the other. "I, on the other hand, am perfectly fine with killing you."

"One way or another, you're getting the hell out of our way," Angela said, prepping an overload.

"Oh shit," one guard said simply, the other forgoing words for simply wetting himself, and they took off at a run towards somewhere in the back of the offices.

"I do believe it's time to, as you Americans say, rock and roll," Neville said, calmly sending a guard tumbling towards the ceiling as the woman emerged from a back room. They fanned out into the main room, backed up a few seconds later by the second elevator load of Shepards (and Wrex). In about three minutes, the whole office was only occupied by Shepards, their team, and a dozen cooling corpses.

They split up, searching the various rooms, and ignoring the four guards who'd managed to barricade themselves in the janitor's closet, except for Eric who made a point of lifting one of the large potted plants and blocking their exit just in case they had a sudden loss of common sense. "I think it's in here," Tali called from a room on the second floor. "It'll take a few minutes to break the encryption."

"I thought he gave us a disk for that?" Inara pondered.

"Personally, I'd rather have Tali crack it," Lilitu said, "just so that we have our own copy."

By the time they finished, everyone had gathered in the office, trading around their latest haul of new weapons and mods. "Isn't Lorik going to ask us for all of this back?" Bradley said.

"All of what back?" Polarity said, making her new pistol disappear into its holster on one shoulder. Bradley responded with a facepalm.

"Let's get out of here," Angela ordered, "and turn this evidence over. We need to catch Benezia before she does whatever Saren has planned." They turned to walk out of the office, only to be confronted by the blond bimbo and four guards as backup. Angela looked at them, then pointedly over her shoulder at the rest of the Shepard Squad, then back at them. "Tell me you're not really this stupid."

"You know what we do to cop killers around here?" she replied, readying her shotgun.

"ERROR: You are not police officers," a synthesized voice came from behind them, causing two of the guards to whirl around in shock. "You are just another group of stupid meatbags."

Whoever the new speaker was, he proceeded to sabotage all of their weapons, while Angela overloaded their shields, and sniper shots from Deirdre, Lilitu, Oksana, and Polarity took out the four guards. Havok shot forward in a blur, snapping the kneecap of the blond before calmly ripping her throat out with biotically-enhanced talons.

"Please identify yourselves," the synthetic person spoke, now pointing a pistol at them. "Williams, Alenko, assist in restraining the unidentified personnel."

"Allah on a pogo stick," Marid said, "it's a robot Shepard."

"Affirmative. Remote Oversight Bodyguard Operative, designation Commander ROBO Shepard. Identify yourselves."

Seventeen of them grinned, and spoke. "I'm Commander Shepard," they said, and the robot regarded them all unblinking.

"ERROR: This statement is illogical. This unit is Commander Shepard," it said, voice reflecting puzzlement, though the facial expression remained the same.

Angela stepped forward, putting her weapons away. "It's true. I'm Angela Shepard, and everyone else has come into my universe. You're just the latest. Can you wrap your programming around that?"

"This unit was designed personally to be the most flexible synthetic operative Heterodyne Industries has created. Do you still serve the Alliance and the Council?" She nodded. "Then I will add you to my reference and analysis queue for consultation."

"I thought a pony was bad," Williams moaned quietly to Alenko as they moved back towards the elevator, "but now we've got the next best thing to a geth siding with us."

"Saren's not going to know what hit him," Wrex gloated from beside her.


	7. Rachni!

_Author's Note: One more Shepards, for a total of three on Noveria. So, if I have everything planned out right, three more side missions, and then Feros. I'm uploading this today, because I won't have time to write Reloaded until tonight. Who's Who will be updated this afternoon. Work has just been kicking my ass the last two days. Hooray for pointless all-day meetings._

* * *

Lorik Qui'in had originally been inclined to balk. After all, he'd only been talked to by a small handful of people before. This time, though, Angela went up with Charles, Eric, Wrex, and Robo, and seeing both a krogan and a human the size of one quickly changed his mind. Parasini offered them the garage pass with indecent haste, promised to buy the lot of them a round at a later date, and fled the bar.

Meeting up with everyone, they went to the garage entrance. The lone guard took one look at them and bolted, running for the elevator and locking herself in. "Really?" Marid said, disappointed. "Not that I'm upset about helping bag Anoleis, but all we had to do was show up in force?"

"I expect the firefight in the office preceded us," Charles said as they shuffled through the doors.

"ERROR: Geth units detected," Robo Shep announced, hurling an overload at the far end of the garage before detonating the fuel tank. There was only a handful of the hostile synthetics, enough the Sheps outnumbered them only three to one, so the entire fight took about five seconds and barely drained anyone's shields.

"Oh for crying out loud," Angela griped. "This place could fit a dozen vehicles, and there's one Mako and an armored transport missing a wheel."

Without missing a beat, Tali, Gina, and Robo moved over to inspect the vehicle, Garrus looking over their shoulders. "This isn't a problem," Gina announced, "we can swap one of the wheels out, have this thing rolling in fifteen minutes at most."

"Battlefield capabilities will be reduced by three point four percent, maximum speed reduced twelve point seven percent," Robo concurred.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Polarity asked, snapping her sniper rifle closed and stowing it. "Who gets to ride in the Mako?"

Twelve Shepards, plus Garrus, Liara, and Alenko, all said in near unison, "Not it." Angela fumed quietly. "Fine, then, Polarity, Williams, Charles, with me in the Mako. Everyone else, assist Gina as she needs you."

"Oh goody," the Shepard in question purred, "but then it'll take a lot longer to finish."

"_Professional_ or I'll program the medbay machine to rip your spine out!" Angela spat as she climbed up into the armored vehicle.

"You wouldn't do that, Angela," Williams said, before ruining it by asking, "would you?" Getting only a wordless growl in response, the marine shrank back into a seat. Polarity fought briefly with Charles over who got the gun controls, and lost, as his hands proved superior to her hooves when it came to climbing into the raised seat.

They roared out into wind and snow, the temperature a balmy -5C (-25 with the wind chill factored in). "We just had to come hunting her during the local winter, didn't we," Charles muttered, swinging the turret around and scanning the path before them.

"Blame Benezia. Hey, isn't she Liara's mother?" Polarity asked tactlessly.

Angela nodded, flooring it and pulling a drifter turn that nearly toppled the unwieldy vehicle. "I'm hoping she's pulling some kind of scam on Saren. Otherwise," she paused, adding disgustedly, "well, I suppose Quistis will have her work cut out for her."

"You're going to tell me that having another 'you' dating Liara bothers you, Angela?" Williams said.

Her response was drowned out by Polarity's cheerful, "I know, right? Garrus is more like where it's at. That metallic skin, and those teeth!" She gave a dreamy sigh, and Angela sideswiped the edge of the tunnel.

"Polarity? Get out and kill those geth."

"But it's _freezing _out there!"

"Move it or _I'm_ going to shoot you!" Angela shouted as she parked the wheels over two more geth, the vehicle rocking as Charles blew apart some geth further down the tunnel.

Forty-five seconds later, the unicorn stood up on her hind hooves, looking in the armored windshield with a look of such abject sadness it actually made Angela sigh and rest her forehead on the steering wheel. "Ashley?"

"Um, yes, Commander?"

"Next time you pray, ask God why he hates me so much?"

"Sure, um, thing." Only then did she unlock the door and let the frost-covered Shepard inside.

They rattled along through a few more geth ambushes, bouncing around to dodge rockets. They pulled up at the peak facility only a minute ahead of the other armored vehicle. They all stared as it pulled up, with Eric and Havok riding on the roof. "Marvelous, Commander! But I'm not dumb enough to try that in the Mako," Havok shouted against the wind.

"Can we go inside now?" Kohana griped as they piled out of the other vehicle. "I'm going to freeze my feathers off."

The garage, blocked by a thoroughly wrecked bus, was only inhabited by a handful of krogan and geth, simple enough for them to handle. They moved inside, dealing with the handful of geth, and encountering the bizarre bug-like creatures. Which, naturally, Eric had to attempt stomping on, nearly ruining the armor on his foot and cursing in pain as it then exploded _inside_ his shields.

"Anyone know what the hell those things are?" Angela asked the group at large.

Almost everyone shook their head, except for Wrex, who was still staring at the remains of the big one, slowly collapsing as several dozen inferno rounds cooked it from the inside out. "They sound like … no, they couldn't be." She raised an eyebrow at the krogan, and he shook his head. "Don't worry about it. It's impossible."

Continuing forward, with too many delays at the stupid tiny slow elevators, they eventually reached the VI core, and in a matter of minutes Angela and Robo had the thing up and running again. "Alright, let's split up and get this done. Shepards through H, you're with me, we'll take the roof. I through P, get the fuel going again. Quistis and Robo, stay here with the rest of the squad and keep the VI core intact." At least they could fit eight people in an elevator, if only barely.

The roof was infested with more bug-creatures, which Bradley launched several off the roof of the facility with a singularity, and the rest disposed of with lots of gunfire. Angela and Gina fixed the lines, apparently drooled on with acidic spit, and went back downstairs. Inara's group returned, also successful after blowing up a dozen or so geth, and the home squad had dealt with a few more of the big bugs.

The tram ride was blessedly quiet, almost boring, as they moved to the heart of the facility. Nothing attacked them, though the two guards manning the barricade came close to firing as the first group of them arrived. Their captain just gaped at them, especially when the second elevator load included Havok, Polarity, Wrex, and Garrus. He actually reached up and pinched himself. "Squad, I think I've had too many stims, I'm seeing things."

"You're not seeing things. I'm Commander Shepard, and I'm pissed off and in a hurry. Where's the Matriarch?" Angela demanded.

"She, but, the hot labs, and is that really a _bright blue unicorn_?" Ventralis finally stuttered out.

"Darn tootin' I am!" Polarity answered. "Name's Polarity Shepard."

Ventralis looked between Angela and Polarity. "But, she, you," he paused, head spinning. "How does that even work?"

Angela sighed, raising a finger in the air, and in unison, eighteen voices thundered, "I'm Commander Shepard." The entire facility seemed to tremble as though in an earthquake, and a moment later, angry screeching from the insectoid invaders echoed up from beneath the floor. "Alright, let's get ready around those vents," she ordered tiredly.

The vent covers were pulled up, and multiple omni-tool lights shone down. Several of the beasts attempted to clamber up the vertical shafts, but withering firepower from pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, as well as nasty biotic attacks tore them literally to shreds, along with the ventilation ducts themselves. By the time the insects halted their attacks, there was a pile of dead insects and ducting fragments large enough to hide Eric and Wrex without them touching.

"Attack repulsed successfully," Robo announced. "You _will_ give us full access to everything in this complex," it ordered.

Ventralis swallowed heavily. "Just for the sake of argument, what happens if I follow company policy and say no?"

"You will be terminated with extreme prejudice. As will anyone who resists," the robot responded flatly. "Go ahead, meatbag. Make my day."

"We have incoming guests," the captain spoke hurriedly into his omni-tool. "Let them do whatever they want!"

"We appreciate the help," Jared said, clapping him on the shoulder as they filed past into the facility. "Ta ta!" Williams shot him a commiserating glance as the poor man started whimpering.

They split up inside, exchanging mods with the elcor merchant, interrogating the lone other asari, checking the med bay and barracks. Back on the lower level, they interrogated the sole survivor. "Wait, those things are _actual_ rachni?" Wrex blurted out.

"Of course. It *shkt* was a mistake to bring them back, but *shkt* money trumped ethics, as always," Han Olar admitted miserably.

"You seem unusually happy about that, Wrex," Bradley commented.

"Hell yes. I grew up listening to the tales of the Rachni Wars. I thought these things were supposed to be a lot tougher," the krogan complained.

"I think we're still dealing with immature ones," Lilitu said, "much as I hope I'm wrong on that.

Inara and Marid came out of the back room with the cure synthesized, and everyone paused as the other door opened, with the local asari Liara had been interrogating flanked by four geth. The firefight lasted exactly three point six seconds, according to Robo Shep, and they looted her corpse quickly before moving into the maintenance tunnels helpfully pointed out by Han Olar.

The door opened on another person in armor, her back to the group. "Garrus, be ready, I think I heard another rachni in here," the new girl said, only to turn and look over her shoulder in shock as Quistis tapped her on the shoulder. "Nani?"

"Oh goody, another Asian Shepard," Angela complained, etching the new girl with an S. "What's your first name?"

"Sa-sachiko. Who are all you people?" Angela shot up an upraised hand to forestall the inevitable response.

"Let's hold that until later," she ordered, "since we already alerted the rachni once with it. We're all Commander Shepard. Well," she amended, "except for the aliens, of course."

"That thing is Commander Shepard?" Sachiko asked, pointing at Robo.

"Affirmative. Commander ROBO Shepard, Alliance marines."

Sachiko stared at Angela a moment longer. "Right then. I'll just … fall into the back?"

"Works for me. What's your training?" They started moving through the doorway into a rough tunnel carved through the ice to connect two parts of the facility.

"A Vanguard," she responded.

"You know," Charles said conversationally to Quistis, "I'm feeling rather outnumbered here. We seem to have an abundance of biotics."

"And techy egg-heads," the redhead agreed. The lone rachni warrior dropped to four simultaneous sniper shots, the infiltrators not even breaking stride. "They're useful, though," she conceded.

"Benezia is still in there somewhere," Angela admonished the group as a whole, "and it'd be nice if we can capture her alive to interrogate."

"Please," Liara said, her voice barely more than a whisper. The next several rooms were just a build-up of the tension, as each room lacked their quarry. Finally, they stopped before a door. "According to the maps, this is the main lab," the asari said quietly.

"Do you want to be in front, or in back?" Bradley asked reassuringly.

"I … I'll be in the front," she said uneasily, moving up next to Eric at the door.

"Good thought, then maybe Benezia won't risk shooting her daughter," Oksana said, almost instantly getting smacked upside the head by Inara. "What'd I say?"

Scowling, Eric hit the door, and they moved in quickly, two at a time, all twenty-five of them, fanning out onto the walkways just to have enough room. On a platform up a short flight of stairs, Benezia watched them enter, her face an unreadable mask of anger. "Who are you?" the matriarch asked.

Nineteen voices spoke in unison, the effect enough to rattle the entire lab, one of the panels on the large glass cage developing a sudden fracture. "I'm Commander Shepard. Where's Saren?" The force of the words sent the asari stumbling backwards, shock etched across her features.

"Few humans have faced an asari commando and lived to tell about it," Benezia blustered.

"Correction: we have sealed the doors," Robo countered. "Your backup will not be joining you."

"Say the word, Angela," Lilitu said, her sniper rifle aimed, "and I'll put her on the floor."

With a wordless cry of rage, Benezia flung out her hand, dropping a full dozen Shepards, plus Wrex and Liara, into stasis, while a dozen geth platforms exploded out of the cargo crates around the room. But the other dozen people were still free to act. Jared grabbed Williams by the neck and ass of her armor, and flung the warrior across to another part of the catwalk, accepting the first bullets on his shield. Polarity spammed overloads on a geth with Flora, causing it to twitch rapidly and then explode, while Quistis fired carefully to keep the geth in cover. Bradley traded biotic slams with Benezia, his angry attack enough to send her stumbling backwards again.

Then the stasis was lifted, and they dispersed around the room, several of them still firing at the matriarch. The commandos, with Robo paralyzed, had managed to get the door partway open, where they faced the difficulty of trying to get under a waist-high barrier guarded by a krogan and the nearest thing the Alliance had to a Viking berserker. Marid and Flora threw up barriers to keep the last geth off them until they could be destroyed.

Benezia tried the stasis thing again, capturing only eight of them, leaving the others to split between holding off her bodyguards and whittling down her prodigious barrier. By the time the stasis fell, all of her indoctrinated commandos and geth platforms were down, and twenty five pissed off people turned their full attentions to her. Four sniper shots went off, nearly amputating one leg below the knee, as her barrier vanished from ten combined slams and warps.

In eerie unison, all of the Shepards moved towards the platform, where the asari leaned heavily against the armored glass cage. "Where is Saren? What does he have planned?" they demanded, the facility vibrating in time with their words. Benezia winced as blue blood started trickling out from her nose and eardrums from the force of their focus.

"You don't know what it's like," she said wearily, panting weakly. "It gets into your head, whispering and worming inside every thought you have, bending you to its purpose."

"How does Saren do it?" they demanded again, stepping closer in unison. Two more glass panels behind her fractured, and a downed geth behind the cage spontaneously exploded.

"It's not Saren," Benezia whispered. "It's his ship, Sovereign." One trembling hand raised weakly to her cleavage, pulling out a small data capsule and tossing it halfway to the foremost Shepards. "That's what he wanted. The genetic memory of the rachni, giving him the location of the Mu relay and access to the Conduit." She sighed weakly, collapsing.

"Mother!" Liara's anguished shout echoed across the room, breaking the symbiotic consensus as she broke through their ranks to cradle her mother's dying body.

Angela stepped forward, picking up the data module and connecting it to her omni-tool. "I'm sorry, Liara," she said, wholly inadequate to the sitation. Quistis pushed through the ranks, gathering the sobbing girl in a hug.

"What do we do with this thing?" Kohana asked darkly, moving over to stare at the truck-sized rachni in the cage.

"Those things nearly destroyed the galaxy," Polarity pointed out.

"This one hasn't done anything to us," Havok countered.

"You mean except for all the little hungry baby rachni running around?" Lilitu spoke.

Benezia suddenly opened her eyes, and rose unsteadily to her feet, leaning back against the glass. "This one's song has faded," she said, sounding completely different, and unconcerned with the two dozen weapons pointed at her head. "Your communication is flat, it does not color the air."

Angela swallowed heavily. "You're the rachni queen," she guessed.

"Yes. We listened to your discussion. We can see your power, it tears at us, dark brown, heavy with weight. We cannot control the others, they have lost the ability to hear the song."

"If I'm understanding it right," Charles said, "the other rachni aren't being directed to attack, they're just, what, feral?"

"That is accurate. We sing to them, and they do not hear, filled with fear and pain. We can only throw ourselves on your mercy," the queen/Benezia said.

Angela sighed, covering her eyes quickly with one hand. "Alright, Shepards, quick decision. Show of hands for those in favor of sparing her." A flurry of hands shot up, and she counted swiftly. "All in favor of killing her." Another flurry of hands.

_Tied nine to nine,_ she thought bitterly. _Is this some kind of cosmic joke thing, to make it all hinge on my decision just because this is my universe?_ She took a deep breath, and moved over to the console, reading the commands. "I am going to let you go," she said slowly, ignoring the muttering from half the Shepards behind her, "but get this clear – one single foot out of line, and we, _all of us_, are coming to wipe you out a second time."

"We will sing of your mercy to our children," the queen said. "We thank you." A moment later, Benezia's corpse dropped to the floor again.

"There's still the issue of what to do with all the loose, feral rachni," Williams commented bitterly.

"They did set up a neutron purge in the hot lab," Gina said, "Ventralis' computer had info on it, but the tech he sent to activate it apparently never made it."

"Good enough for me. Weapons free, if it's not humanoid, shoot it," Angela ordered as they moved towards the other exit.

"What if we run into a hanar?" Deirdre asked rhetorically.

"Then I guess they get turned into sashimi," Sachiko said, shrugging. "Damn jellyfish creep me out anyway."

* * *

The hot lab had a dozen rachni running around, and the corpse of one tech, killed but otherwise untouched. They quickly searched his body, finding the security code for the neutron purge, and moved to the back room. "I have a bad feeling about this," Bradley said.

"Me too. Vanguards to the front, soldiers and infiltrators to the flanks, adepts to the rear, sentinels and engineers to the middle," Charles suggested. "Just in case more of them decide to show up, we're going to need to force our way out of here."

"Good call," Angela agreed. "Mira! Activate the neutron purge, two minute delay!" She rattled off the security code from her omni-tool, and the alarm sounded.

Sure enough, when they opened the door again, the room was packed with rachni warriors. Kohana ran out, flanked by Eric and Wrex, themselves flanked by Havok and Sachiko. They tore through the rachni in a straight line to the elevator, halting there as something occurred to them. "Angela, we won't all fit," Neville pointed out calmly as he shoved a singularity inside a warrior.

"I realized that," she shot back. "Ideas?"

"Is the elevator shaft shielded?" Jared asked.

"I think so," Polarity said.

"Then allow me," he said, pushing to the front. Straining, he pulled together a ball of biotic energy the size of his head, and thrust it into the elevator. The moving box crumpled inwards, and then dropped heavily five feet to the bottom of the shaft. "We just have a long climb," he panted, dropping to one knee.

"Everyone into the shaft!" Angela shouted. Gina snickered loudly enough to be overheard as they all backed in, Flora and Oksana starting to climb the maintenance ladders. "Robo! Move your metallic ass!"

"A neutron purge will present minimal hazard to my hardware, and someone must close the doors," it said. Charles and Quistis were firing past its ankles on full auto, and Bradley and Neville launched another two singularities to keep the rachni off it. "Please stand clear of the doors," it announced as the VI countdown reached three. The doors protested being forced shut, but the next several seconds went by with no one suddenly keeling over dead.

"Oh good, it worked," Polarity said. "Now, how the hell am I going to climb to the top when these ladders were designed for hands?"

* * *

Three hours later, they trudged through Port Hanshan from the now-operative tram back to the Normandy. "You can do magic, yet you never thought to learn how to fly?" Havok asked the unicorn.

"I never thought I'd need it! It's not like I made a habit of getting trapped at the bottom of elevator shafts designed for other species!" she protested.

"Don't worry about it," Eric said, "reminds me of N-candidate training. Only none of the stuff they made me carry talked quite so much."

"All in favor of heading to the Citadel for a day or two of R&R?" Angela asked, getting a ragged affirmative from everyone.

Naturally, as she stepped back on board, the very first thing she heard was Joker. "Commander, there's a priority call from Admiral Hackett."

"Tell him I died," she responded half seriously, and slouched towards her quarters.


	8. Saleon, and X-57

_Author's Note: Two more Shepards up today, one on a side quest, and one on the X57 DLC. Which I only played because it came with the ME triple pack for the PS3, which I bought because my wife wouldn't finish ME1 on keyboard/mouse. Enjoy!_

* * *

Angela was standing at the galaxy map, comparing the outstanding requests, anomalies, and outright orders, when Polarity came trotting up the stairs. "Hey, Angie, got a second?"

She turned, cocking one hip up onto the railing. "Sure, ponygirl. What's happening now? Jared steal your credits at poker? Gina make another crack about you constantly being horny?"

The unicorn sighed and shook her head. "Well, to answer the first question, I was talking with Garrus." She paused, obviously expecting a smart-ass response that Angela managed not to say out loud. "He got a lead on one of his old cases in C-Sec. Serious mad scientist salarian."

"Isn't that redundant?" Angela said, before wincing and putting a hand over her mouth. "Please continue," she said, muffled.

"Yeah. Well, this guy was cloning organs inside of people's bodies, and escaped the Citadel before they could catch him. Garrus found his ship transponder." Angela's omni-tool blipped in time with a tiny pulse from the horn.

"Let me guess – Garrus wants us to go in and take him into custody, with a strong hope for violent resistance?" Polarity nodded eagerly. "And you want me to go so you have a better chance of getting into his pants."

"Why would I be wearing his pants?" she asked cluelessly. Pressly's forehead smacked into his console. "I'm trying to get plowed!"

"I'll take that as a yes," Angela groaned. "Fine, sure, what the heck. I know there was something else in that cluster I was supposed to be doing. Where are we going?"

They arrived in the Herschel system, cruising around to scan the planets and pick up random floating trinkets. Every time she picked up a new turian outpost insignia, or another fragment of Dilinaga's writings, the selling prices on Extranet Auctions ticked up a little bit. Finally Joker cruised the Normandy over to the floating freighter, adrift near the asteroid belt.

Garrus and Polarity, along with Neville, were waiting patiently in the CIC as the docking procedures were completed. Already armored and armed, they moved quickly for the airlock, letting the adept take the lead as they moved in. "Is it just me, or is this place too quiet?" Garrus muttered, just loud enough to be heard.

"How many hostages did this bloke escape with?" Neville asked, flicking open the corridor door twenty feet away.

"A dozen, I think," Garrus said. "We never got a full count."

"They might all be dead by now," Angela warned as they stepped into the main bay. A moment later, an inhuman scream echoed through the room from a dozen throats. "Or not."

Around the corner of a giant shipping crate came what might have been a turian, once upon a time. The skin-scales were bulged outward, suppurating flesh oozing between the gaps, and a double set of mandibles stretched obscenely as he ran towards them. Polarity's sniper rifle boomed once, and his head flopped over sideways, barely still attached by a thin flap of muscle as he crashed heavily to the ground.

"I suggest we retreat into the hallway," Angela shouted, already backing off as she fired rapidly at what might have been a human or an asari; the skin was the deep purple of a bruise and mottled.

Spitting bullets, they waited for the crazed patients to charge them, Neville slowing them down with singularities and slams so that Garrus and Polarity could put them down permanently, while Angela mostly just slowed them down. Which was just fine with her, really. Once sixty seconds had passed with no further attacks, they relaxed slightly. "How many salarians did we shoot?"

Neville did a quick count. "Four turians, two humans, three asari, one batarian, and two salarians. Poor buggers." He pointed out the two salarians, and Garrus quickly looked over the corpses.

"These aren't him," he said quickly. "He might be at the bow of the ship, locked himself in for protection."

"Or they ate him," Polarity muttered darkly. Angela and Neville both winced sharply at that. "But let's hope he's still locked up. Hey! There might be more cool stuff in here!" As they walked cautiously through the bay, the unicorn was busy telekinetically throwing open cargo containers at random and examining their contents for profit.

Before long, they reached the front of the ship. "Gosh, three doors, and only one of them locked," Angela said. "Let's check out the other two first." Garrus gaped at her. "Look, he's not going anywhere, and on the off chance he's got some kind of dead man switch in there, I want to check out the other two compartments first."

"Sounds like a plan," Neville said. "I'll stay here and watch the door. I promise to only stasis the bloke if he comes out."

Sighing, Garrus followed Polarity into the crew chamber while Angela scanned the bridge quickly, taking a moment to disable the engines. They met back in the hallway, and with a ready nod from Garrus, she hacked open the door in about two seconds. "That's him. Doctor Saleon."

"I don't know what you're talking about! I'm Doctor Heart! All these patients went crazy, I think the food was contaminated or something," he stammered out quickly.

"So, you want to put a bullet in his head, Garrus?" Polarity asked.

"Did that horse just talk?" Saleon muttered, staring at her.

"I personally think we should bring this bastard in for proper justice," Neville said as the turian's hands tightened on his weapon. "Find out how many people he did harm, after all."

"I'm _not_ going to prison," the salarian snarled, and started to draw a weapon. A moment later, an armored foot kicked him in the knee, his weapon sparking as he fell to the floor.

"Now stay down, you schmuck," the dark-haired woman behind the salarian said, using her biotics to put a little extra weight on him. "Garrus? Who're these people?"

Sighing, Angela raised a finger. "Ready? I'm Commander Shepard," the three of them spoke in unison.

"Angela, why is it that all of these alternate-Shepard people know exactly who I am?" the turian asked, slapping restraints onto Saleon.

"Presumably, despite our different backgrounds, everything between Eden Prime and their arrival went exactly the same," Neville said. "Aside from the differences in our species, Polarity and I did everything the same up until I rescued Burns, and she talked down Helena Blake."

"Wait, there's more of me around?" the new Shepard asked as Angela etched a 'T' onto her armor.

"One for every letter," Polarity said cheerfully. "So there should only be a couple left!"

"What's your first name?" Angela asked as they started back towards the Normandy's airlock.

"Talya," she whispered. "Oy vey."

"What kind of fighting move was that, anyway?" Garrus asked, kicking Saleon to the floor of the airlock while the decon cycle ran.

"I learned it from my mother. It's Jew Jitsu," she carefully enunciated to separate the words. "Um, why is Angela banging her head against the wall?"

"No idea, but she's been doing it a lot lately," Polarity said. "Personally, I think she just needs to get plowed," the unicorn stage-whispered, causing the banging to increase in intensity.

* * *

Angela was prepared to check out the other notable system in the cluster, when she got an emergency call from Hackett. "Shepard, there's an emergency at Terra Nova," he said without preamble. "One of the asteroids that was being brought closer to the planet for mining has accelerated past the safety margins and isn't responding to any communications. We sent a shuttle of Marines to investigate, and lost contact with them."

"So you need me to go bring a couple of my stunt doubles and fix whatever's wrong," she summarized.

"Well … yes," he said, flustered. "How many are you up to?"

"I just picked up Talya Shepard," she said. "Who is currently terrorizing the quartermaster about why there's no kosher food on board."

There were several seconds of silence. "Hackett out."

Pressly muttered something under his breath. "What was that?"

"Nothing, ma'am!"

"I thought so. Set a course for Terra Nova," she ordered.

They arrived several hours later, the fusion torches on the asteroid clearly visible on their approach. "Alright, Shepards! We have to take the Mako down. I'm taking Sachiko, Talya, and Quistis." A couple of the other Shepards groaned in disappointment. "Depending on conditions, we may be able to land more people, so everyone else be prepared for a hot drop into hostile territory. Be downstairs in five. Charles, don't scratch the paint while I'm gone." The dark-skinned soldier saluted with a grin.

The four of them dropped in the Mako, letting Sachiko drive and Quistis handle the guns. Which turned out to be a fairly wise decision, as whoever had taken over the asteroids kept their turrets shielded behind thick barriers of metal. "This is fucking cheating," Quistis complained as she ripped one of them to pieces with a second cannon shot.

"Is it bad that I'm tempted to just pull up near one and overload it to death while it shoots at an empty Mako?" Talya muttered.

"Yes," Angela growled, switching around a pair of shield capacitors in between rockets. "Unless you were planning to _walk_ the ten kilometers to the next fusion torch."

"Ah. Point taken." The rest of the turrets were taken out fairly quickly, and they pulled up in front of the torch. Inside, they opened the door to see batarians. Both Quistis and Talya let out battle cries, opening fire with assault rifle and biotics, killing two of them quickly before return fire sent them both scuttling for cover.

"Just once, I'd like to catch an enemy completely off guard, no return fire," Angela lamented.

"Guess you should have gone for infiltrator training then," Sachiko said, before leaping her cover and charging straight up to one of the batarians, body slamming him with a shoulder to the face before putting a shotgun blast into his groin.

It didn't take long at all for the four of them to clear out the complex, find the controls, and Angela shut it down. "Shouldn't we, I dunno, redirect it?" Sachiko asked.

"No, we need to limit the acceleration, and the other torches still going will nudge it off course," Talya explained while Angela worked.

"Whatever," Quistis said. "Just find me some more fucking four-eyes to shoot."

On their way out, a trembling engineer fired a shot at them in panic, barely even enough to noticeably decrease Angela's shields. "Alright, mister, you've got five seconds, and then I let the angry Japanese vanguard tear you a new one."

"They're trying to kill the planet," he babbled. "If the asteroid hits, it'll take millions of years for the ecology to recover. But you can't just drive up to the other complex, it's surrounded by blasting caps."

The four Shepards glanced at each other. "Joker, the second fusion torch, ask Garrus to fire off something small and kinetic at it."

"Uh, sure Commander," he responded. "Can I ask why?" he added a moment later.

"They surrounded the place with improvised land mines," Quistis explained. "And a nice rumbling impact should set them off before we roll up and give some batarians a _very _bad day."

"We're on it," Joker said before disconnecting.

Back in the Mako, they raced for the next torch, watching as the Normandy cruised by overhead and fired a couple of shots into the ground around the station. When they topped the nearest ridge, they could see the destruction, a wide circle of torn up rock, and one staggering figure near the door of the facility, who promptly received an explosive cannon shot. "How many points is it if I hit him in the knee?" Quistis asked rhetorically from the turret.

"Can we just get in there and shut the place down?" Angela muttered crossly. They bounced and jounced over to the entrance, piling into the building quickly. Inside was yet another Shepard, another dark-haired Asian. "Grand, we're up to 'U'," she muttered as the four of them slid into cover quickly.

"Who the hell? Where are Alenko and Vakarian?" the new Shepard blurted out.

"Relax. We're Commander Shepard," Angela said, leaning out to slap a rocket drone with an overload at the same time as Talya.

"That can't be right, I'm Commander Shepard," she complained, only to have the other four join in on the last words. "Um, alright then. Overloads on three?"

Two engineers and the sentinel sent out electronic pulses at the same time, giving the soldier and vanguard open fields of fire as two more rocket drones exploded and the three remaining batarians all lost their shields simultaneously. All three of the invaders dropped swiftly, and the last two rocket drones capitulated to a trio of sabotage bursts, overheating themselves as their rockets exploded internally.

"So, what's your name?" Angela asked as she etched the 'U' into the new girl's armor. "Also, it's nice to have a Shepard I don't have to stare up at."

"Ubon. It's Thai." The rest of them made their quick introductions while they jogged up the stairs and Angela set about disabling the torch. "So, there's how many of us?"

"You're letter 'U'. Figure it out, genius," Quistis said sarcastically.

"Rowr, don't start a catfight," Ubon shot back. Angela banged her helmet against the console.

"Can we concentrate on killing the batarians instead of each other? Please?" their erstwhile leader complained. "Just once?"

"But we weren't trying to kill each other when we were blowing up rocket drones," Talya said obliviously.

Angela just groaned, and pointed back towards the exit. "Back to the Mako. Still one more torch left, and we need to check out those isolated spots the engineers should have been at."


	9. Balak's Death, and MOAR Rachni!

_Author's Note: Happy Birthday to Commander Shepard, all *stops to count* 23 of them! V and W are in today's chapter, so next up we'll be visiting sunny Feros to pick up the last of the crowd. Then, well, Saren will have quite a shock waiting for him, right? I'd also like to point my fans towards a fic called __Galactic Life, and Reapers__, a collaborative fic which includes some work by yours truly, currently up on the page of LegionN7. As always, I love reviews!_

* * *

As they departed the building controlling the second torch, Angela was already on the comm with Joker. "Take the Normandy by these coordinates, have Neville and Bradley take down a squad each and check for survivors," she ordered curtly. "Let them know I have Ubon Shepard."

"Understood, Commander," Joker replied, and they raced along towards the third torch.

As they were revving up the Mako, Ubon was listening intently to her earpiece. "What's up?" Quistis asked sarcastically. "Find a new band you like?"

"Hacked into an open channel," their new engineer responded. "Batarians, threatening several of the locals." She winced suddenly. "And they just shot one of the hostages to find out who's been talking to me." Ubon glanced up. "Or should that be us?"

Angela frowned, charging the Mako over a ridge. "I haven't been talking to anyone local," she said. "Which worries me. How many of the people here are from this universe, and how many from yours?"

Ubon shrugged. "Is there a difference?"

Talya grinned. "Oooh, maybe next we'll start getting in duplicates of everyone else! How many Kaidans do you think I can talk into being my boy toy harem?" Whatever she was going to say next was cut off as the Mako shot off a cliff and into freefall for a couple of seconds.

"As you value your life," Angela muttered, "do _not_ finish that thought."

"She's a little touchy about Sierra Echo X-ray," Quistis stage-whispered, purposely loud enough to be heard. "Polarity thinks she needs to get plowed."

"Who's Polarity?" Ubon and Talya asked together.

"Polarity is a unicorn. Don't ask right now," Angela admonished, putting the accelerator pedal to maximum.

"Angela? You're charging straight at one of the cannons."

"Yep."

"We're going to hit it!"

"Yep!" Laughing madly, she skipped the jump jets over a rocket, giving Quistis just enough time to blow out the shields with the cannon before they smashed right through the turret, slewing sideways, shields dropped to half. "Take that, you batarian bastards!" she whooped, charging for the next turret in line.

"Oh, fuck this," Sachiko finally spoke up, lunging forward and fighting Angela for control of the wheel. The next two minutes, as they jerked back and forth, proved more than capable of eluding the turret VI targeting, and the last of the turrets exploded moments before the Mako went shooting through its wreckage. "Are you crazy?"

Angela looked pointedly around the Mako. "In the last month and a half, I've had twenty different alternate versions of myself pop up, several of which aren't even recognizably _human_. I would have to say yes." Eyes glinting, she moved to get out of the Mako. "And what would happen to all of you if I died?"

"Oy vey," Talya muttered again. "Don't make me knock you out and run this op without you," she threatened.

She stopped to take several breaths. "I'm good. Let's kick these batarians in the teeth."

The five of them readied their weapons, storming through the front doors of the facility. Several batarians were waiting, biotic shock troopers, forcing them to scatter. Sachiko had her hands full as she tried to take out the biotics with a little help from Talya, and the two engineers kept the non-biotics from doing much of anything except dying.

They reached the second floor, opening the door to see another tall man in a marine buzz cut pointing an assault rifle at the console. "What the hell are you doing?" Angela and Ubon shouted in unison.

He turned just his head around. "Who are you? Where's Tali?" he said, a faint accent coloring his words. "I was going to have her disable this, but she disappeared."

Ubon shoved him out of the way while Angela wearily etched a 'V' in his armor. "How did you know my name started with a 'V'?" he asked. "Commander Victor Shepard, Alliance marines." He glanced around at the otherwise matching N7 logos. "Are you part of the original shuttle?"

Sighing, Angela held up three fingers and counted down. "I'm Commander Shepard," the rest of them said, causing him to glance around the room.

He stared between them all. "I did not know my other selves would be so … tiny," he murmured.

"There, it's off. The asteroid should miss the planet by a couple miles," Ubon told them, turning back from the console. "I can't help but think we're missing something around here."

"The batarians definitely have a base around here somewhere," Sachiko said. "Probably their escape ship. Landed, sent out squads of soldiers to take over the facilities and kill any stragglers."

"Sounds likely," Angela agreed. "Let's head back to the Mako, see if we can triangulate it between our sensors and the Normandy." They stepped out, looking at the new squad of batarians near the door. "Or we could ask them nicely," she added sarcastically.

"Oy! Dickface!" Talya shouted from the balcony. "Tell us where your leaders are before you get Angela really pissed off!"

The batarians looked at each other. "What happens then?" one of them asked.

"We shoot you all in the legs, disarm you, line you up outside, and run you over with our tank," Victor said, calmly centering his rifle scope on the one on the left while Quistis matched him on the right.

"Please, give me a fucking reason," Ubon spat, omni-tool ready to fry them all.

They glanced at each other nervously again. "If we tell you, can we leave? We didn't sign up for this," their leader said, gesturing to the facility. "Balak's gone nuts. Wants to get revenge for Torfan or something."

Quistis and Ubon, in unison, responded, "He's going to get a personal Torfan in a minute."

Angela held up a hand. "Give us the coordinates. You have until we're done with him to get the hell out of Alliance space."

"We'll take it," Charn said hurriedly. "Here you go," he said, putting down a data disc by the entrance as they all hurriedly backed out onto the surface. Wordlessly, Quistis started counting, and on six there was a thudding explosion.

Angela looked at her calmly. "Turned on the VI auto-target?"

"Duh, we're on a rock full of hostile batarians. You think I was going to just let them drive away in _our_ Mako?" She spat as they moved towards the stairs. "Fucking four eyes."

Outside, they skirted around the splattered remains of the three batarians and got back into their vehicle, charging for the hideout with Sachiko driving this time. "No offense, but I really hope we don't find anyone else in there," Angela said.

"You don't think a sixth Shepard will come in handy at assaulting the base of these invaders?" Victor asked, confused.

"I don't think a sixth Shepard will fit in the Mako," Ubon said. "Unless Angela sits in my lap."

"I'll leave that for Flora," Angela muttered darkly, causing Quistis to chuckle and the two new Shepards to look confused.

They arrived at the new facility, watching the turrets move on tracks back and forth. "Are you kidding me?" Sachiko muttered, sending the Mako jumping up onto one of the tracks to simply knock the thing loose, sending it crashing to the ground while Quistis blew up the second, and then pulled around to the front of the facility, where the third one couldn't shoot at them.

Piling out of the Mako, Angela paused as Joker paged her. "Commander, we checked out those coordinates. Couple of dead bodies, little bit of salvage, that's it."

She sighed heavily. "Alright. We're at their base. Bring everybody." Two minutes later, the Normandy hovered overhead, taking out the last turret and half the track with a single GARDIAN shot, and then the rest of the Shepards were jumping out the cargo door to the ground. "Alright everyone, inside we've got an unknown number of hostile batarians, probably with defensive drones, and an unknown number of hostages. Their leader is named Balak. When we find the prisoners, Tali, Robo, and Ubon will see about freeing them. Everyone else, deal with the batarians. Weapons free." Twenty-eight weapons were held aloft.

They moved into the building in threes and fours, Wrex and Eric leading, flanked by Charles and Victor. The batarians were caught nearly flatfooted, expecting no more than a half dozen soldiers, to be met with almost thirty pissed off people. The hostage cage was found quickly, and the three engineers ducked from cover to cover across the courtyard to reach them, splitting up their tasks quickly, disarming the explosives and hacking the locks. Before long, the only batarians left were entrenched in cover at the rear of the room, with everyone lining up different angles of fire, a couple of experimental tech and biotic attacks lobbed into the area.

"Who are you people?" one of the batarians shouted angrily. "How the hell did you get here?"

Twenty two Shepards roared in unison, "I am Commander Shepard, and you just pissed me off!" The very building shuddered, support beams warping and windows shattering. The heavy cargo crates being used for cover tumbled backwards, crushing the cowering batarians beneath them and sending Balak slamming into the rear wall. "You think you deserve revenge?" The wall around him cratered as the force of their voice, their simple focus, crushed him against it. 'You deserve _nothing!_"

On the last word, Balak was reduced to nothing more than a grimy smear spread out across the surface, the wall exploding outwards and leaving a hole almost large enough to fit the Mako. The sudden decompression was fortunately partial, as the building VI raised a shield to hold in the rest of the atmosphere, but it also disrupted their symbiosis.

"Spirits," Garrus muttered, as Liara uttered, "By the Goddess," right beside him.

"Shepard," Alenko yelled from the back, "these people all need medical treatment. Especially with … that … whatever it was," he stuttered out.

"Angela to Normandy. Land and bring Doctor Chakwas in," she said numbly, staring at the hole they had left. _Four more of us, potentially_, she thought with detached panic. _What next? We get mad at a merchant and split the Citadel in half?_

* * *

Her report to Hackett was short, absent of any emotion or editorial comments, and sent via text instead of voice. Angela still wasn't sure she could talk about what happened and not sound like a raving lunatic. Sighing, she returned to the galaxy map. They'd talked down an Akuze survivor thanks to Bradley and Lilitu, and were now checking out some Cerberus signals in Styx Theta. She took down Flora, Oksana, and Victor, figuring they'd need the combat skills of the second two.

Cruising around in the Mako led them past two rachni nests, obviously feral, or she and the queen were going to have some serious words later. Arriving at a small outpost, still manned by a couple of Marines, they slewed to a halt. "Get out there and support them," she ordered, turning to hook the Mako up to their damaged generator. Within seconds, the turrets were again active, blasting away at the rachni soldiers boiling up from the tunnels nearby.

When the wave was done, the lieutenant in charge turned to look at them all, obviously confused. "I'm Commander Angela Shepard. Where'd the rachni come from?"

"Rachni? We don't know. They started showing up a couple of days ago after a supply ship came through," the woman said, near panic. "We're down to living on stims and medigel."

Angela was about to say more, when a rachni warrior suddenly loomed up above the barricade, only to drop from a sniper shot straight through its mandibles and into the brain. She turned around, groaning. "Let me guess, W Shepard?"

The fairly nondescript man raised an eyebrow at her. "Waldo," he said quietly.

"Your parents named you Waldo?" Flora asked incredulously. "Did they hate you before birth, or something?"

He gave a tiny smile. "Made me good at hiding," he said, and Oksana scowled.

"We will see about this," she said, hefting her own sniper rifle.

"Shouldn't Garrus and Lilitu and Deirdre be here for this?" Flora said as the next wave of rachni started to come pouring out of their tunnels.

"Just shut up and kill the goddamn bugs!" Victor shouted, assault rifle chattering away and a broad grin on his face.

When the waves finally stopped for a while, they went down into the tunnels, splattering several hundred gallons of rachni guts all over the walls and leaving behind some nice large blasting charges, collapsing several of the tunnels. "That should take care of them." Angela glanced around after they were safely back on the surface, frowning. "Where's Waldo?"

"Right here," he said from about six inches behind her shoulder, causing her to jump, whirl, and scowl. She'd just looked over her shoulder, too.

"Fine, let's get back to the Normandy," she muttered. "Go save some more of the galaxy."


	10. ExoGeni Headquarters

_Author's Note: Two more Shepards. For those of you keeping track, it means only one Shepard, Z, remains. I look forward to every review I get, I love them all! Thank you everyone for keeping up with this crazy fic. For now, enjoy sunny Feros._

* * *

The new Shepards had settled in fairly well. Her room was now overly crowded, what with eight female Shepards crowding in, and the entire wall where Ashley's weapon bench used to be was now filled with a row of double lockers. Whatever freaky infiltrator-hiding-shit Waldo did extended to his locker, because despite having his name on it she still missed it when she went to check everyone's gear the last time.

"Feros ETA, five minutes," Joker informed her, and Angela tried to gather her thoughts together.

"All Shepards and ground team, you should be armored up. Beyond a sketchy report of geth sightings, we don't know what's going on here at the colony. The nearest landing dock is near Zhu's Hope, but we still have a bit of a walk to get there." She considered her troop layout. "Williams, Victor, you're first out, Waldo and Deirdre flanking for support. After that, we'll go balanced groups." She would be in the second group with Havok, Neville, and Garrus.

Joker pulled them into a nice, sheltered little niche on one of the crumbling towers that covered the planet. They disembarked quickly, her lead gunslingers quickly moving up the path from cover to cover. Waiting for them was one colonist, who raised a hand peacefully. Before he could say anything, both Waldo and Deirdre fired in unison, sending a geth platform dropping to the floor, headless. The poor colonist ducked for cover as twelve other guns and biotics opened fire, quickly taking out the two remaining geth.

"I'm Commander Angela Shepard," she told the guy. "What's going on here?"

"The geth are attacking the colony! We don't know what they want, but they've cut us off from everyone else around here! Fai Dan can tell you more, he's our leader." He gestured in the direction the geth had come from. "Up those stairs to the colony."

She nodded, signaling the first group, and they all moved out. There were a few more geth in the stairs, quickly defeated by massed, accurate firepower, and then they were at the colony. "Alliance soldiers? We're sure glad to see you," Fai Dan said, "but we weren't expecting quite so many." Angela glanced behind her at the almost thirty of them. "We need help getting our colony safe again, before," his next words were cut off by a sudden burst of gunfire from the nearby tower.

They all responded in unison, blasting away at the geth attempting to reach the center of the colony. They moved up through the tower, splitting off to cover all the various passages before the first two groups reached the top, blasting apart the geth jumping from the dropship above, finally starting to pour fire into the open troop bay when it blasted up and away from the colony.

Returning down below, Angela cornered Fai Dan, with Charles and Neville to back her up. "Alright, what's going on here? Why are the geth so determined to get in here?"

"We're not sure," he said, and she glanced at her counterparts. They both gave her the subtle signs that said they thought he was lying too. "But, if you can spare a few soldiers, we do have some things to help us shore up our positions. The main geth encampment seems to be at the ExoGeni headquarters, down the skyway a few kilometers. There should still be a vehicle in the garage upstairs, if the geth haven't overrun my people up there."

He detailed a few other niggling problems they had, like food and water supplies, and she called together a few more Shepards to discuss it. "Neville, you take care of the transmitter in the tunnels. Eric, take down those varren. I'm going to take Marid, Robo, and Jared with me. Charles and Victor can help the colonists rebuild their defenses more effectively. Split up everyone else as you need them."

"I don't think we can trust this Fai Dan," Charles said grimly. "He definitely knows why the geth are attacking them."

"The colonists are more than a little creepy," Eric agreed, "ask them anything more complicated than what their task is, and it's 'Speak to Fai Dan.' Like they're all pod people or something."

Bradley nodded. "Something weird is going on around here. Be careful up there. I'll take Polarity and Garrus up with me, guard the garage while you're gone, just in case."

They split up, grabbing their assigned teams, and entering the tower together. Up above, Angela reached the garage after another interminable elevator ride, and left Bradley to assist the three surviving colonists in setting up their defenses. Moving to climb into the Mako, she paused halfway inside, staring at the shock of crayon orange hair in the driver seat. "Oh for crying out loud," she said, causing him to turn around.

"Well hello, nurse," he said, starting up the Mako as the others climbed inside. "Fancy meeting a stunning," he paused as she started up her omni-tool. "Ah, why are you etching my initial into my armor? Have we met?"

Robo looked down from the turret. "You are another Shepard-analogue, corresponding to the letter 'X'. Two more remain."

The new one looked up at him, then over at Marid and Jared. "Someone want to put that a little closer to English?"

Jared clapped him on the shoulder. "Welcome to the Shepard collective, X man. You're now in an alternate universe, hers to be precise, and other than now being part of a lovely collection of twenty-four of us, most everything is the same."

"Oh good! So I still have a shot to sleep with Chief Williams?" Anything else he might have said was cut off by Angela reaching over and gunning the accelerator. "Hey, hey, I'm driving here! Get your own Mako!"

They cruised down the skyway, blasting geth apart and stopping in a few places to pick up salvage before driving on. They stopped when they received a radio message, popping out to confront a small group of survivors. "Don't shoot them, you idiot!" one of the women shouted at a man in a suit.

"They could be geth!" he said back, trembling and sweating as he pointed his pistol at the thoroughly unimpressed group.

"Error: this unit is no geth. Geth do not infiltrate, meatbag," Robo declared firmly, causing all of the guards to twitch nervously.

"Has anyone told you that silence is golden? Even if you are silver?" Xander asked rhetorically.

"I'm Commander Shepard," Angela said. "Who are you people?"

"We're what's left of ExoGeni," the woman said. "There might be some more survivors left in our headquarters. My daughter's still out there."

Sighing, Angela nodded. "We'll keep an eye out. In the meantime, stay hunkered down in here, and don't draw attention to yourselves until we can get rid of the geth."

Jared motioned towards their cover. "Be prepared to move, though. Zhu's Hope is still better defended than this place."

"The colony is still intact?" suit-man asked hopefully, instantly twigging Angela's paranoia.

"For right now, you should stay here. There's still too many geth for you to try evacuating there," she informed them, already moving back up the ramp. "Let's move, people!"

"Yes mom," Xander replied snarkily. Marid nodded to the blond man he'd been discussing something with, and they crowded back into the wheeled tank, heading forward.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the tunnels below the city, Eric and Wrex stood shoulder to shoulder, wrestling the two krogan mercenaries working with the geth. "Doesn't this ever get old?" the human asked.

"You have no idea," the battlemaster growled. "My species has no shortage of extra stupid people who need removing from the gene pool!" He headbutted his opponent, sending him staggering backwards long enough for Deirdre to put a sniper round into one shoulder.

"This is all a _fascinating_ look at krogan _culture_," she said acidly, "but can we just kill these losers and get on with it?"

Without a word, Wrex promptly shattered the other krogan's knee, driving him to the floor before putting three shotgun blasts into his neck and face. "Take all the fun out of it," he muttered. Eric flared his biotics, driving the other krogan to the ground as well before simply crushing his head inwards with one armored boot.

"You want to go first?" he asked calmly, making the infiltrator scowl. "I didn't think so."

"Why did we change jobs, anyway?" she asked, making a poorly placed container of volatile something explode on the charging mercenaries.

"You really want to kill varren?" Wrex asked. "They're pretty boring. Just gnashing teeth, sharp claws, and about your size. No challenge at all." He headbutted another merc, kicked him in the balls, and slammed the muzzle of his shotgun into his mouth before pulling the trigger. "This is fun!"

* * *

On the other side of the tunnels, Neville watched three varren spinning lazily in circles around his singularity. Sachiko and Inara watched them, occasionally putting a pistol shot into them to watch the contortions. "Why did we switch jobs, anyway?" the Indian sentinel asked.

"This might not be playing by the queen's rules, but I daresay it's a sight easier than facing down several geth," Neville said, popping up another singularity right as the last one failed. "Wrex and Eric are probably having the time of their life turning their opponents into scrap metal."

"I found the power cells!" Havok cried from the trashed vehicle above them. "Aren't you guys done yet?"

"It's kind of relaxing," Sachiko said, watching the madly writhing varren. "Except for the smell."

* * *

Xander stopped in front of a narrow door. "End of the line. This stop, ExoGeni headquarters, hordes of geth, lots of corporate secrets, and maybe a survivor or two." They climbed out quickly, glad to be free of the tank confines, and moved forward. Several geth went down easily, and after clearing the area, they dropped down into what had probably once been the parking garage before the geth blew stuff up.

A pistol shot rang out, and Angela looked down at her shields. "Why do people keep doing that to me?"

"It's your winning personality," Marid said with a grin.

"I'm so sorry," the civilian said, "I thought you were one of the varren!"

"What varren?" Xander asked. A moment later, one of them bounded up from the rubble and latched its jaws into his armored legs. "I'm sorry I asked!"

They let loose with the gunfire and biotics, dealing swiftly with them. "Alright, miss," Jared said, "we need some information. Why are the geth here?"

"They, um," she hesitated, obviously torn. "You realize that's a big corporate secret, right?"

Jared's smile got darker, as did the ball of biotic power he was playing with. "Dear girl, I don't really care right now. That corporate secret has gotten hundreds of people killed." His other hand reached out and caressed her cheek. "What's one more?"

She swallowed loudly. "They, uh, are here for the Thorian, I think?"

"Good girl," he murmured. In a few minutes, she had spilled her guts to them, and they moved forward into the complex. They paused at the krogan attempting to interrogate the VI. "I wasn't aware krogan knew how to use a computer," the adept muttered.

"Obviously, they can't," Xander agreed as the merc whirled around. "I think their training ends at which end of a gun spits bullets."

"I'm not certain he got that far," came another accented voice, and they all opened fire, blowing the lone krogan away. "Now, who are you people, and what did you do with Alenko and Williams?" She glanced down. "Why are you etching my armor?"

"Only one more to go, Angela," Jared said happily. "Now let's get in there and blow up some more geth!"

After a quick round of introductions, they did exactly that. Three engineers and two adepts made quick work of the synthetics, especially with a sentinel to back up whichever side needed it more. They crippled the geth warship, sending it plummeting down between the towers, downloaded the data for the ExoGeni guy, and headed back to the Mako.

"Angela," Marid said, "I just had a terrifying thought."

"What's that?"

He gestured around. "If we count the civilian, there's now seven of us. And only five seats."

All of them stopped dead and stared at the tank, then at each other, then back at the tank. "Anyone want to walk back?" she asked hopefully.

"It's something like eight kilometers back to Zhu's Hope," Yvette complained. "Not a chance."

It took several minutes to get things arranged properly, but finally Angela was seated in Jared's lap, with the civilian in Marid's. "Acceptable. Please hold tightly to handgrips, as safety protocols are now disengaged," Robo said.

"What does that mean?" Yvette started to ask, only to have the last word turn into a shriek as Robo gunned the acceleration to maximum, sending them all rocking backwards in their seats. There were almost no geth reinforcements, so their drive back was fairly quick, even with the stop to tell suit-man to back down before Robo introduced him to a brand new world of hurt.

* * *

In the garage, Bradley, Polarity, and Garrus all stiffened when the colonists turned in unison towards them. "I thought you Shepards had the monopoly on creepy stuff," the turian said nervously.

"So did I," the adept said, lifting the three of them off the ground with a singularity. "Anyone know what's going on?"

"Pretty sure it has something to do with them being pod people, like Eric said earlier?" Polarity added, giving the three colonists a hard shock with her horn, enough to make them drop their weapons.

"Alright, we'll knock them out for now, hopefully we can figure out what the hell is going on when Angela gets back," Bradley instructed, and wielding their gun butts, they did just that. He was about to say more, when the garage door opened. Only instead of the Mako, it was a crowd of vaguely humanoid monsters crowding in. "I hope this isn't happening downstairs," he shouted as his gravity slam took out the leading two creatures.

* * *

"Man, I sure hope this isn't happening upstairs!" Charles shouted, gunning down another of the creatures. They seemed to be coming from all around them, in the buildings. The colonists had already been knocked out, with a few minor wounds dealt out for good measure, and the remaining Shepards and ground crew were now sheltered between the cargo ship and the outer wall.

"Any Shepard out there, I've got a dozen colonists banging on the hull right now, demanding entrance," Joker came over their omni-tools. "What the hell is going on out there?"

"We'll let you know," Kohana shouted, punching a creeper in the face hard enough to rip its head off. "In the meantime, I suggest you lock the doors and roll up the windows!"

"That sounds real helpful," Lilitu muttered, blowing another one apart. "How many of these fuckers are there?"

Quistis paused in shooting to slam her rifle butt into another one before it could grab the infiltrator. "Until we run out of bullets, we keep shooting!"

"How long does it take one of these things to run dry, anyway?" Talya asked.

Victor grinned, lecturing loudly as he continued to fire. "A standard M-8 Avenger ammo block is good for seven thousand rounds," he said, "high-grade aluminum-tungsten alloy for minimum weight and maximum firing power. We'll probably burn out the barrels before we run out of ammo." Even as he said that, his assault rifle clicked. "Williams!"

"I don't have a weapons bench anymore," she complained, her shotgun taking out two more creepers in one blast. "It's been replaced by your damn locker, remember?"

Sighing, the Russian soldier switched to his own shotgun. "Nichevo. We kill them anyway!"


	11. Thorian Creepers

_Author's Note: And so, we finish the lovely planet of Feros. To everyone who thought my Shepard's couldn't possibly get any more crazy or outlandish, I hope that Z Shepard meets your expectations. Please, please, please review, because I love seeing them pop up. I've got an illness, and the only medicine is more reviews._

* * *

Gunning the Mako, Robo drifted it sideways, slamming through the crowd of Thorian creepers crowded outside the garage door, the vehicle halting inches away from the door. "Arrival successful," it announced. "Please remove safety devices, arm shields, and prepare for combat."

They piled out, letting Jared go first to swat a few creepers the Mako had missed, then ducked inside. "Boy are we glad to see you!" Polarity shouted, hitting one of the creepers in the face with the butt of her rifle, then trampling it. "Bad insane plant people!"

"What's going on?" Angela shouted as they assisted in taking out the last few creepers. Xander, with a little help from Robo, then moved to lock down the door for good, listening to the chattering of the Mako's gun as the VI picked targets. "What about the colonists?"

"We knocked out these guys," Bradley gestured to three groggy, bruised civilians. "Charles and Neville restrained the ones downstairs and locked them in that freighter, then barricaded themselves up against it." He gestured. "Who are the new Sheps?"

Everyone did a very quick round of introductions, and they crowded into the elevator. "So," Xander asked, "There's now twenty-five Shepards?" Everyone else nodded, except Yvette, also clueless. "And we're all stuck here in Angela's universe. So, what's happening back in our own?"

"I have no idea," Polarity said, "but I don't think it's good. But at least I still have my Garbear!" She leaned against Garrus affectionately, who looked panicked at the sight. Yvette looked disgusted, while Angela just looked annoyed, mostly because Jared and Marid had skillfully maneuvered to keep her away from the walls.

Xander blinked at the two of them for a few seconds and shrugged. "Eh, I've seen worse in Fornax."

"Oh my gosh, I _love_ that magazine! Joker bought me a lifetime subscription!" Any further words from the unicorn were thankfully cut off as the elevator opened, revealing two ranks of Thorian creepers. Bradley and Jared promptly singularitied the lot of them, then sat back and had a thumb war while everyone else opened fire.

With the way clear, they trooped down the stairs and out into the clearing at the center of the colony. A few of the colonists had managed to force the freighter door open a few inches, so Angela cheerfully shoved in a couple of the gas grenades before they went around the side. "Ho, Charles!" she called out, waiting for the soldier to respond before they came around the crate wall. "Having fun down here?"

"Loads," he deadpanned. "How was ExoGeni?"

"I picked up two more friends," she motioned at X and Y. "There's some plant thing, controlling the colonists and these things. It's down underneath this freighter."

"What nerve, hiding such a dastardly secret right under our very noses," Neville added.

"Try those controls, they should give us access to the thing. We figure out what Saren did to it, set it on fire, and get the hell out." She motioned Gina towards the controls.

"Won't lifting half the freighter hurt some of the colonists?" the other engineer asked, even as she moved to activate the crane.

"Ask me if I care," Kohana muttered, pausing to punch out another creeper.

One of the freighter sections lifted, revealing stairs down into the decrepit building. "Hmm. Havok, Sachiko, Flora, Kaidan, and Liara, you're with me. Everyone else, hold the perimeter. Once I get a better idea of the place, I may call for more squads." Angela moved for the stairs, the other five quickly falling in with her.

After a few winding corridors, they emerged into the wide open space in the center of the building. "That thing is a _plant_?" Havok asked incredulously.

"Makes me wish I brought a weed whacker," Sachiko said, running one hand over her shaved head. "Ugly thing, ain't it?"

As they approached, a green-tinged almost-asari was spat out of one of the orifices on the Thorian. "You will serve the Thorian," it threatened. "Meat animals are only good for servants and nourishment."

The four Shepards grinned, deliberately speaking in unison. "I'm Commander Shepard," they said, the effect just enough to send shivers up their teammates' spines. "Tell us what you gave Saren and the geth."

"No! No more deals with lying short-lived animals!" The asari-thing raised one green hand, only for two shotguns and a gravity slam to send it flying off the balcony edge.

The four Shepards turned to look at Liara. "I'm sorry, was that overkill?" she asked nervously.

"Nah, that was kind of cool. Thanks, blue eyes," Flora said, motioning towards another set of descending stairs.

"I don't see why my eyes are important," she replied, confused. "I'm an asari, my everything is blue."

Grinning, the saucy Shepard grabbed her ass, eliciting a startled squeak. "Flora, I swear to whatever deity is out there, if you don't focus on the vicious killer plants, I'm shoving you off the balcony next," Angela said, before putting three rounds into a creeper as it stood up.

In the hallway below, guarding what looked like a giant connective root the size of Wrex, was a veritable army of creepers, at least three dozen, and they were clearly upset at something. The squad came in firing, and only when the creepers were down did they realize that their last and final Shepard was here in the mix, facing away from them, a short ponytail covered in creeper gore stuck to the back of her armor. "You must be Z Shepard?" Angela asked.

When the new Shepard turned around, Kaidan actually opened fire, his shot ricocheting off the armor, while the other five just stood, mouths gaping open. "Holy crap," Sachiko said, "this is unbelievable." She started giggling uncontrollably.

"I don't think this is a laughing matter," Havok muttered, trying to contain his gorge.

"Mua aaommmnnnrrrrr ssseeeraa," Zombie Shepard moaned at them.

"I don't believe this," Liara murmured. "It's not possible. She's dead, but she's walking around." Zombie pointed her shotgun at the connective root, and fired one blast. "And trying to order us around."

Angela had not yet moved or spoken at the appearance of Zombie Shep. "Ah, Angela, you okay?" Flora snapped her fingers in front of the engineer's face, eliciting no response. "Kaidan, hold this for me, will you?" she asked, handing her pistol to him.

Before he could ask what she was planning on doing, the other sentinel had grabbed Angela, dipping her into what certainly looked like an incredibly passionate kiss, which lasted all of about five seconds before their leader shoved away. "Oh, god, ew!" She spat several times. "Never, ever, do that again," she moaned. "Shoot me instead, it'll be less painful!"

Sachiko had sidled over next to Flora. "I'm game if she's not," she murmured, purposefully loud enough to be heard, prompting a new round of spitting.

"But Sachi, darling," Flora responded in the same seductive tone, "I already know everywhere you shave."

"That does it, I'm shoving both of you off the side," Angela growled, straightening up.

"Oh, look, more creepers," Havok deflected, pointing at the incoming wave.

They fought through to the next giant root, and after they had snapped that one, Angela started calling squads in to keep the place clear while they descended. By the time they reached the bottom, and the Thorian was barely holding on from falling deeper into the abyss, all twenty-six Shepards were inside, only Wrex, Ashley, and Garrus holding the barricades outside (which had stopped being attacked, all of the creepers being used for last ditch efforts inside).

All the Shepards stepped up to the edge of their respective levels. Kaidan quickly handed Liara a pair of earplugs, putting in a pair himself, and Tali turned off her suit speakers. "I am Commander Shepard," they boomed out. Six kilometers away, the remnants of ExoGeni heard them clearly. "Tell us what you gave Saren."

A plant-asari, only partly formed, screamed at them. "No! No more bargains with meat!"

"Then **_DIE_**," Shepards said, and the Thorian was crushed, held in place by the force of their will, plant juices pouring out the bottom of it. A moment later, the pulped remains fell into the abyss of the ruins below.

From one wall, a living asari fought her way free of one of the connective sacks. The nearest Shepards turned to regard her. "Who are you?" Talya asked.

"I was a follower of Matriarch Benezia," Shiala explained, even as she was wracked with full-body shivers. "Saren came here seeking knowledge. The Thorian could keep some of the memories of the people it devoured. It was here before the Protheans, before the Inusannon. He needed Prothean thoughts to fully decipher their beacons."

The Jewish Shepard stepped forward, the rest of them already drawing closer to the asari. "We need that information," she ordered, her voice backed by half their number, shaking the facility.

"I can't merge with that many at one," Shiala protested, panicking, pressing herself back against the wall as the crowd of Shepards closed in. "I can't! I'm not that strong!"

"Give us the knowledge," all of them whispered, the force of their words lifting her to her feet, soothing away some of her fear. Even as Shiala reached for Talya, she reached for Ubon, who reached to Eric and Inara, and before the meld started, all the Shepards stood, joining hands. The knowledge of Prothean thought patterns raced out between them in a cascade, and as it finished, the asari slumped to the ground.

"Goddess," Liara cried, rushing to her side, checking quickly for vital signs. "She is merely unconscious, I hope," she said, worried.

Angela calmly forced her way through the pack. "Eric, carry her up to the surface. Joker, how's the visitor reception?"

It took a moment for the pilot to respond. "They, uh, stopped knocking and all collapsed after you ordered the Thorian to die."

She blinked in surprise. "You heard that?"

"Angela, I think they heard that on Earth. Hell, they probably heard it on Rannoch," Joker muttered before disconnecting.

"Doesn't matter," Quistis said. "Let's get upstairs. See if there's anything Chakwas can do. Then we go find Saren and do to his nuts what we just did to the Thorian." Lilitu raised a clenched fist in agreement.

"Step one, get the hell out of here," Angela concurred. "Everyone up the stairs. The faster we're off this shitty planet, the better."

* * *

While Chakwas was giving the colonists their health exams, Angela, Charles, and Neville were in the meeting room. "You destroyed this Thorian? It could have had immeasurable scientific value!" Valern complained.

"It turned all of the colonists into its slaves," Charles responded. "It was 'obey or kill yourself.' We witnessed it personally."

"We do congratulate you on your destruction of so many geth," Sparatus said. "In the meantime, we have a new target for you. A planet called Virmire." They laid out the details, such as they were, and signed off.

"That could have gone worse," Waldo uttered, making all three of the others jump. "Still, sounds like we're finally about to catch up to Saren. Why are you all staring at me?"

"How long have you been there?" Angela asked.

"The whole conversation with the Council. I walked into the room right in front of you." Looking vaguely perplexed, he exited the room.

"One of these days, he's going to get shot," Neville said blandly.

"Multiple times," Angela agreed, stalking out of the room herself.


	12. Virmire Arrival

_Author's Note: And so, we come to Virmire. I made an effort to put more Shepards aside from Angela, Polarity, Robo, Havok, and Eric in the spotlight. I've been reliably informed by reviews (hint hint) that they're the crowd favorites. Please, reviews are awesome, and I love them, especially with juicy details of what you like about my stories!_

* * *

They cruised into orbit around Virmire, stealth systems activated. They scanned the planet, quickly identifying Saren's facility, the location of the STG group on the ground, and the spot to disable the anti-air defenses to allow the Normandy to land. The entirety of the Shepards were crowded into the mess, along with Ashley, Kaidan, and the four alien crew. "So, here's the limitation," she said simply. "We have to do a Mako drop. There's thirty-two of us, and the Mako seats five."

"Who's driving?" Lilitu asked quickly.

Angela glared at her, blinking as Zombie's hand raised. "Eeh cnnn drrrrr," she groaned out. Everyone stared at her, prompting another groaned, "Whhaaaaa?"

"Ahem. Right. I'm content to let someone else drive. I'm sick of that stupid tank, anyway." She stared around the room at the various expressions of shock. "Why is everyone so surprised?"

"I thought I was possessive of it," Garrus muttered.

"You are, sweetums," Polarity said, fluttering her eyelashes up at him.

"Oh spirits, don't do that," he groaned, looking nauseous.

"Wait, who's the lucky Shepard who gets to drive?" Ubon demanded, already cueing up her omni-tool.

"Why does it have to be a Shepard?" Tali complained.

"Because we outrank everyone?" Quistis shot back.

"For fuck sake, everyone _shut up_!" Angela yelled. Before someone else could interrupt, she cued up a program on her omni-tool, letting it pick at random. "Alright, the driver is Gina." She blinked at seeing another engineer in charge. "Pick a nice balanced ground team, and disable the anti-air turrets so we can meet you at the STG stronghold."

Glancing around the room, she pulled Havok, Liara, Talya, and then looked around uncertainly. "Um, I was going to take Waldo," she said.

"I'm right here!" the infiltrator said with annoyance.

"Where?" Gina and Angela said together, looking in the direction of the voice, only to finally spot him when Wrex picked him up by the shoulders. "Oh, there you are. You good to go on the ground mission?" Gina asked.

"Of course. Something tells me you're going to drive away without me at some point," he muttered, mostly to himself, as he joined the rest of the chosen troops.

Angela looked around in satisfaction. "Alright, good. Everyone else, keep yourselves entertained, and that does not mean putting a sock on the door," she growled, glaring at Flora and Jared, both of whom grinned unrepentantly.

As she turned to leave, she couldn't help overhearing Kaidan, complaining to Bradley as he handed over a credit chit, "How did you know?"

"We just hit Z. Would _you_ want to find out what the next streak of Shepards was?" the adept responded, pocketing the credits. _Of course, that wasn't really the reason,_ Angela thought as she went up the stairs, _and I'll keep repeating that until I believe it._

* * *

Hitting the surface, Gina gunned the engine almost immediately. "By the way, watch out for the ocean shelf," Joker warned them as she raced along the beach, taking some glee at splattering the giant crab-bug things under the wheels.

"Why? Isn't this thing rated for it?" Talya asked.

"It's a two hundred foot drop, and if you don't disable the anti-air first, we can't come get you," the pilot responded before clicking off.

"That's not the kind of bath I want," Havok said quietly. "So, what's up ahead?"

"Geth, apparently," Liara said as the engineer ran over one of those too, and Waldo turned the machine gun on the flying drones. "I cannot wait," she deadpanned.

"There you go, you'll fit in with the Shepard collective in no time," Havok teased her, flexing his claws and his biotics.

"Goddess save me from such a fate," the asari murmured with heartfelt despair.

Then the Mako was screeching to a halt, just crushing one more geth between their vehicle and a closed gate. "Everyone out! Someone keep an eye on Waldo!" Gina ordered, overloading the synthetic just coming down the stairs, delaying it just enough for Havok to gambol right over and rip its arm off. "The controls must be upstairs. Not to mention, loot!"

"I call dibs on the credit chits!" Talya shouted, throwing out an overload as the geth charged out of the rear chamber.

"Aren't we supposed to be pooling resources?" Waldo asked from somewhere nearby as his rifle took the destroyer in the knee, ending its career neatly.

"So what?" Talya retorted, the geth dead as they all rushed to the back room, disabling the guns, opening the gate, and most importantly, looting the conveniently placed equipment lockers. "Don't you wonder why they never use this stuff?"

"Not really," Havok mused. "They have things almost just as good."

"Why do the geth stockpile human, krogan, and," Gina blinked in surprise, looking at one stack of pieces, "quarian armor? Well, that one I can almost understand."

"I have enough trouble attempting to understand my fellow asari, let alone other species or synthetics," Liara said, swapping up cryo ammo for her pistol.

"Even Quistis?" Gina queried playfully, making the asari turn a deeper shade of blue.

"Can we get moving? We have lots of other geth to disassemble for parts!" Talya cried, already moving back towards the Mako.

They descended back to the beach, piling in quickly. Gina blinked in surprise as the seat turned out to be a lap, with something surprisingly firm poking her in the butt cheeks. Turning to glance over her shoulder, she found herself face to face with Waldo. "Find something you like?" he asked blandly.

"I, uh," she started to stammer out.

"Too bad, I'm not giving up my sniper rifle," he said, and she slid off his lap to see the weapon held between his legs, the last few inches of the barrel what she had been pressed against. Scowling at the giggling Talya and chittering Havok, she pointed imperiously at the open gate. Grinning, he gunned the vehicle forward.

They cruised right past an armature, the geth platform clearly scanning around in confusion as it was hit by cannon and machine gun fire, and an overload as Talya leaned out the hatch. "Seriously?" Gina complained, "it's not enough that you make yourself disappear, you can take the whole fucking _tank_ with you?"

"What can I say? It's a gift," he said, right before the colossus shot pitched the vehicle up onto three wheels. "And not always reliable."

"Ah, may I recommend evasive maneuvers?" Havok inquired, thrashing at the cannon release. "Or get us closer, either way!"

In another forty minutes of combat, they had worked their way through the rest of the gate houses, and watched the Normandy swoop down from high orbit to join them at the salarian camp. There was close to two dozen of the special forces left, their leader marching out of a tent as the Normandy settled down and the cargo bay opened.

"Captain Kirrahe, STG." He looked at the rest of the Shepards, and the rest of the ground crew, as they disembarked. "Is this all the reinforcements the Council sent? Promising, but I would have preferred a cruiser or two."

Angela looked at the group, quickly pointed to everyone up through F, and then grinned. "I am Commander Shepard," the six of them said, the effect just enough to cause the salarian equivalent of making the hair on their neck rise. "What's the situation? Your message was indecipherable to the Council, and they sent us to investigate what happened to you."

Kirrahe blinked several times, and then took a much closer look at the group, especially the non-human Shepards. "Is that one dead? And walking around?"

"Iiiiaa ffaaaaann," Zombie moaned.

He just stared for several seconds before Angela snapped her fingers in front of his face to bring him back to reality. "Saren is building an army here," he said without preamble. "He's come up with some way to work around the genophage and is cloning an army of krogan. He has to be stopped before he can finish, but my team has been unable to do more than slow his progress, and I've lost half my men."

"Shepard," Wrex started, before turning to Angela, "you can't let this happen. If he's got a cure for the genophage, it could cure my people."

"I'm not going to risk another krogan rebellion," Kirrahe snarled, unfazed when Wrex turned to glare at him.

"Damnit, Shepard! Do my people really deserve to be wiped out?" Wrex shouted into the crowd.

The voices there were mixed, only a few Shepards remaining silent, as the rest said, "Yes," and "No," with almost equal frequency. The effect of those mixed voices was, if anything, worse than their unified force. The entire beach shook, several of the stones near the edge of the shelf falling over into the depth, and all of the native crab-things within sight spontaneously boiled from within, their shells cracking and exploding. The salarians had all doubled over, clutching the horn-things on their heads, and all the wildlife within hearing range had gone completely silent.

"Ok, people," Angela said slowly, popping her own eardrums, "Let's _not_ do that again. I really hope that didn't travel far enough to let Saren know we're here." Seriously, she turned to the krogan, still blinking away the effects. "Think about it for a minute, Wrex. What happens to your people when Saren loses, and everyone knows he had an army of krogan as well as geth?"

He hesitated, and Lilitu answered for him. "The turians go back and finish what they started. No genophage, just death. Just like the rachni."

Angela, and several others, nodded. "And what happens if we fail, and Saren wins? What happens if he brings back the Reapers?"

He opened his mouth this time, but Victor beat him to it. "The Reapers kill them all anyway. Sure, maybe they kill them last, after they've used the krogan to burn down Earth, Palaven, Thessia, Sur'Kesh – but they all still die."

Wrex stared back and forth around the loose circle of Shepards surrounding him. Then with a roar, he spun away, stalking towards the Mako, punching it hard enough to leave a dent in the armor. "Fine, Shepards, you're right," he grudgingly conceded. "Doesn't mean I have to like it."

"It's a regular shit sandwich," Xander agreed. "So, what's the plan, Stan?" he asked Kirrahe, who just stared at him in confusion.

"He means, what are we doing to stop Saren?" Alenko translated helpfully.

"Our best bet will be to insert a shadow team into the rear of the facility, while the rest of us attack the front as a distraction," Kirrahe said. "The only way guaranteed to destroy the base is to plant a nuclear warhead at the center."

"How many teams are we talking about, here?" Angela asked suspiciously. "Because trust me, the League of Shepards is far more effective as a cohesive unit."

"We're a league now?" Neville asked. "Do we have a cricket team lined up?"

Kirrahe stared at them, obviously evaluating their little effect on Wrex and the initial declaration. "What did you have in mind, then?"

"We do send in a team. Myself, Wrex, Garrus, Tali, Liara, we go in through the back, disable any defenses we can. Robo prepares the bomb on board the Normandy. All of the other Shepards stage a coordinated assault on the front of Saren's facility, while Alenko and Williams assist your STG in keeping their flanks clear." She grinned at his expression. "Oh, no, trust me. If you thought that was impressive, you ain't seen nothing yet."

"Human colloquialisms," the salarian muttered. "I can't wait."


	13. Who's Who: A Cerberus Primer

_All Shepards share the same birthdate; nearly all other details, including racial origin, abilities, biotic capability, place of birth, and personality, are different. How and why they are appearing in our universe is still unknown, but the phenomenon appears to be centered around Angela Shepard. - ML_

Angela Shepard – The original, if you will. Born to Hannah and Kwan Shepard, both stationed aboard Arcturus Station at the time of their wedding and Angela's birth. Kwan was slain three years later during a tour on the SSV Fuji as a junior gunnery officer. Angela grew up as an Alliance military child, often staying with Hannah's friends or other servicemembers during her mother's deployments outside Alliance space. She joined the Alliance, receiving technical training and graduating OCS as an engineering officer, distinguishing herself during the Skyllian Blitz by remotely hijacking several pirate vessels before they could load prisoners. Angela stands approximately 5'2" and facially takes more after her father, Kwan. (Spacer/Hero/Engineer)

Bradley Shepard – Born to Hannah and a Bartholomew Shepard, both also stationed aboard Arcturus. Bartholomew died after overexposure to eezo in a drive core leak aboard the SSV Nairobi while it was undergoing repairs in drydock; the same leak exposed Hannah Shepard and her as-yet-unknown child, resulting in Bradley being gifted with biotic powers. He was in the second group to receive the L3 implants, and has served most of his Alliance career as Marine biotic support, during which time he was the only survivor of a thresher maw attack on Akuze. Bradley stands at 5'10", with dark brown hair and a noticeable scar across the left side of his neck. (Spacer/Survivor/Adept)

Charles Shepard – born in Johannesburg to Robert and Eudio Shepard, immigrated to Mindoir colony at the age of 18 months. After batarian pirates killed or enslaved most of the other colonists, Charles was found alive at fourteen by the Alliance response team. He remained in foster care for another two years before joining the Alliance marines, learning numerous weapon skills but distinguishing himself as a sniper, earning several medals during the Skyllian Blitz for killing the pilots of several shuttles. He has dark brown skin, matching his mixed ancestry, and stands 5'7"; he normally shaves his head since hair does not grow normally through the burn scars on the back of his head. (Colonist/Hero/Soldier)

Dierdre Shepard – born on earth, parents unknown. Dierdre was left as an infant on the steps of a church in Chicago with a short note giving only her name and birthday and the words "I'm sorry." She bounced between several foster homes as well as juvenile detention for attempts at hacking and breaking and entering. She joined the military with a waiver to avoid potential criminal charges as an adult, and distinguished herself in basic training to be selected for infiltration teams. Her unit was also wiped out on Akuze by an unpaid pack of Blood Pack mercenaries hoping for loot and salvage. Dierdre stands 5'9" and normally wears her red hair in a distinctly non-regulation ponytail when not wearing a helmet. (Earthborn/Survivor/Infiltrator)

Eric Shepard – both in Berlin to Gerard and Nina Shepard; killed in an aircar accident on Eric's seventh birthday (he was not present). Eric bounced between relatives, as well as spending several long stints as a homeless teen in Berlin before his biotic powers manifested. He was scooped up by Alliance recruiters and sent to BAaT, in the first group receiving the L4 implants. He trained as a Vanguard, his natural size and strength supplementing his biotic abilities, and playing a key role in the brutal suppression of the batarian pirate base of Torfan, including several personal bare-handed kills. Eric stands 6'10" tall with Nordic blond hair, and has several small scars from near misses. (Earthborn/Ruthless/Vanguard)

Florimel 'Flora' Shepard – born on Mindoir to Diego and Maria Shepard, who both died of rare native infection shortly before the batarian invasion of Mindoir. Flora's biotics manifested during the attack, allowing her to kill several of the pirates and escape. She was picked up by the Alliance response teams, and her family training in technical systems led to her training as a Sentinel, with later series L3 implants. She also distinguished herself in the assault on Torfan, using biotics and hacking to blow several portions of the base to vacuum. Flora still follows her family's traditional Roman Catholic faith, one of the few Shepards to show religious inclinations. She stands 5'6" and normally has her black hair braided or in a bun. (Colonist/Ruthless/Sentinel)

Geneveive 'Gina' Shepard – born in Nice to Thomas and Adelle Shepard, who are reportedly still alive and well in France. Gina is considered a technical expert, attending Alliance OCS on a meritorious scholarship and graduating with honors. She served aboard the SSV Lima and SSV Everest before being caught on leave on Elysium, using her hacking skills to block off pirates using city construction vehicles and evacuate civilians. She stands 5'8" with short brown hair and is missing the lobe on her right ear. (Earthborn/Hero/Engineer)

Havok Shepard – the first non-human Shepard to appear, Havok is essentially a six-foot ferret, with longer legs and arms, hands with thumbs, and shorter tail; his armor is also contoured to his more flexible body. He claims to be from a city called 'Abbey' on a colony called 'Redwall'; research suggests this to be his universe's Shanxi. He is a vanguard by training, his biotics powered by L3 implants and his fighting focused around short-range weapons like the shotgun. He also distinguished himself during the Skyllian Blitz in ship-to-ship combat against the "catarian pirates", repelling three boarding attempts and disabling a pirate vessel with a biotically launched escape pod. (Colonist/Hero/Vanguard)

Inara Shepard – born to Hannah and Samir Shepard. Samir Shepard also died in a drive core leak, except his was on board the SSV Hawking from a damaged fighter. Inara was briefly a Batarian prisoner, captured when the passenger vessel she was on was attacked by pirates, the rest of the crew killed during captivity before she was rescued two months later during the assault on Torfan. She is one of the few religious Shepards, with a small tattoo of the Hindi word for "Love" inked in light blue, approximately ¼" square. She stands 5'5" tall with the black hair and features much like her father. (Spacer/Survivor/Sentinel)

Jared Shepard – Born to Tobey and Sarah Shepard, emigrated to Mindoir at the age of six months. Jared is not an albino, but does have rare naturally white hair, including eyebrows and eyelashes. He is an L4 adept, receiving the first wave of L4 implants after being rescued from the slave pens during the liberation of Mindoir. His experiences there were a key reason behind his personal execution of several disarmed batarians during the raid on Torfan, but the speed gained in not dealing with prisoners enabled him to personally save three other Terran squads. Jared stands 5'9" and has his hair in short spikes. (Colonist/Ruthless/Adept)

Kohana Shepard – Father is unknown, mother is Chumani Shepard, died shortly after childbirth due to complications from eezo exposure during pregnancy. Kohana is one of the few remaining recognized members of the Sioux tribe, and spent most of his time pre-BaAT getting into trouble with local law enforcement. He received the last wave of L3 implants, and was noted for personally killing over one hundred batarians in melee combat during the Torfan raid. Kohana stands 5'9" and has his black hair pulled back into a short braid, normally woven with a pair of raven feathers despite Alliance regulations against it. (Earthborn/Ruthless/Vanguard)

Lilitu Shepard – born to Robert and Elizabeth Shepard, on Shanxi. Both parents were injured during the First Contact war, and emigrated to Mindoir only two months before the batarian raid. Lilitu survived by hiding and killing two batarians from a haystack with a broken pitchfork. She was placed into a youth military academy after her rescue, and joined the Alliance on her 18th birthday. Lilitu was then the only known survivor of her squad on Akuze, and has reportedly lamented that she is cursed. Lilitu stands 5'5" with short, dark brown hair. (Colonist/Survivor/Infiltrator)

Marid Shepard – born on Eden Prime to Mohammed and Murala Shepard, died of undisclosed illness shortly after Marid entered biotic sentinel training. Served aboard the SSV Agincourt, destroyed in his universe during the Skyllian Blitz. Marid survived from a combination of biotic fields and desperate jury-rigging of environmental systems after a missile barrage gutted the ship, exposing all decks to vacuum. He stands 5'11" with typical Arabic features, and a small tribal-like tattoo over his right eyebrow. (Colonist/Survivor/Sentinel)

Neville Shepard – born in London to John and Nancy Shepard. Nancy Shepard was killed in an aircar accident while Neville was in BaAT training, John is still alive. Both parents were British local police, and Neville has purposefully adopted many British affectations, mostly to get on the nerves of everyone around him while simultaneously being a bang-up chap. (_I edited this. Seriously, listen to the guy talk! – KC_) He has mid-series L3 implants befitting his late start as an adept, and was awarded for his part in protecting civilians during the Blitz with biotic shields. He stands 6'1" with short brown hair, and has his helmet visor painted with a monocle. (Earthborn/Hero/Adept)

Oksana Shepard – born on Arcturus Station to Boris and Hannah Shepard, her father was killed during the response to Mindoir by an IED. She was trained as an infiltrator after several issues with breaking and entering onboard Alliance ships, and was awarded for her brutal (if effective) actions on Torfan, including launching several live prisoners out airlocks. Oksana stands 5'7" with black hair dyed with purple and red streaks. (Spacer/Ruthless/Infiltrator)

Polarity 'Pony' Shepard – the second non-human Shepard to appear, Polarity is an intelligent unicorn, with a sky blue coat and a mane in striped darker shades of blue, she also possesses a "cutie mark" on both flanks displaying a lightning bolt impacting the center of a sniper crosshairs. Polarity shares the same birthday on Celestia Station (_Counterpart for Arcturus, I think - ML_), despite this being far outside of normal equine lifespans, and has been apparently trained similar to an Alliance infiltrator, though her talents are duplicated with so-called "magic" rather than omni-tool technical training. She stands around four feet tall at the shoulder _(I'm _not_ getting close enough to measure hands! – ML)_ and other than armor does not normally wear clothing. (_Please let me keep her? Pretty please? - KC) _(Spacer/Survivor/Infiltrator)

Quistis Shepard – born to Squall and Rinoa Shepard in San Francisco; Rinoa is dead of gene-mod rejection, Squall is alive and serves as a local officer of the FBI. Quistis enlisted in the Alliance after being kicked out on her 18th birthday, and distinguished herself for both marksmanship with the M-8 and clearly efficient brutality on the battlefield, she was given several medals for her assault on Torfan, which included sending pirates back as unwilling suicide bombers. She stands 5'6" and, like Dierdre, typically wears her strawberry-blond hair in a non-regulation ponytail. (Earthborn/Ruthless/Soldier)

Robo Shepard – constructed by Heterodyne Industries and programmed by Klaus Wulfenbach, CEO and PhD of AI studies. Robo-Shepard has been programmed to uphold Alliance law and enforce the will of the Council, in that order, but quite clearly is not experienced with the kinder and gentler human emotions. Being a synthetic being, it is adept at hacking and similar technical tasks, and is disturbingly well-versed in intimidation and threats. Robo-Shepard is an even six feet tall, with silverish flexible-mesh skin and no hair. Robo-Shepard also does not typically wear armor. (Engineer; being constructed leaves Robo with no background to match the others)

Sachiko Shepard – born in Zushi prefecture, to Takeshi and Rei Shepard, both parents were killed in an apartment building fire while Sachiko was in school. She spent the next several years running away from foster homes and surviving on the streets before being arrested for killing a low-level yakuza thug with her emerging biotics and being sent to BaAT training. She was the only survivor of her unit on Akuze, and though it is believed she purposefully sacrificed her squad members, no evidence was found. She stands 5'9" and normally has her head shaved bald. (Earthborn/Survivor/Vanguard)

Talya Shepard – born to Mel and Pamela Shepard on Mindoir. Talya also had her biotics emerge during the batarian invasion, and upon her rescue was sent to BAaT training. Her high technical aptitudes led to her training as a Sentinel, and she distinguished herself during the Blitz by supporting a group of Alliance Marines staging a counterattack, keeping the entire squad alive. Aside from generally eating kosher, she does not follow the rest of her parents Reform Judaism. She has shoulder-length curly hair, and stands 5'7". (Colonist/Hero/Sentinel)

Ubon Shepard – born to Chakri and Hannah Shepard on board the SSV Fuji. Ubon grew up on ships, and like both of her parents, went into Engineering training, finishing the Alliance training at the top of her class. Unlike the other space-raised Shepards, Ubon's father is alive and well, but divorced from Hannah and recently retired. Ubon was part of the raid on Torfan, taking command when Major Kyle was badly injured, and venting toxic biowaste into several of the compartments where the toughest resistance were holed up. Her black hair is usually braided in accordance with military regulation, and she stands 5'3". (Spacer/Ruthless/Engineer)

Victor Shepard – born to Gregori and Hannah Shepard on board Arcturus Station. The two Captains are apparently alive and well, serving on board the SSV Orizaba as Marine OIC and XO, respectively. Like his father, Victor joined the Alliance Marines, and was celebrating his N7 completion on Elysium during the Blitz, being singlehandedly responsible for staging a counter-offensive against the slavers and seizing one of their ships. He stands 6'3" with black hair normally cut in a Marine high&tight. (Spacer/Hero/Soldier)

Waldo Shepard – born to Lupin and Carmen Shepard on Earth, emigrating to Bekenstein at the age of five, his parents were killed in a terraforming accident, leaving Waldo completely on his own for three months until their silence was investigated. He was shuttled between foster families, often simply taking off to the wilderness by himself. He eventually enlisted, receiving infiltrator training before entering an officer training program. His unit was wiped out during the Torfan offensive, leaving him as the only survivor of his unit. Waldo stands 5'9", with short brown hair. (Colonist/Survivor/Infiltrator)

Xander Shepard – born to Giles and Buffy Shepard, both deceased on the SSV Hastings, Xander was raised by his maternal grandmother Willow, a permanent resident of the Citadel. He was frequently in trouble with C-Sec during his teenage years for hacking and interfering with Keepers, and was shuttled off to the Alliance to avoid being evicted from the Citadel. He distinguished himself prior to Torfan by hacking into pirate communication bands, leading three of the pirate vessels to begin firing on each other before Alliance ships arrived. Xander has his hair dyed bright orange and currently cut along the back in the appearance of a jack o' lantern. He stands 5'8". (Spacer/Ruthless/Engineer)

Yvette Shepard – born to unknown father and Annabelle Shepard, on Shanxi. Yvette was also in the second group to receive the L3 implants and trained in BAaT as a ward of the state after her mother's death during the First Contact War. She was awarded for personally saving fifty-seven people by biotically disabling the engines on two slaver shuttles during the Blitz. Yvette stands 5'10" with blond hair, normally braided and tucked into her armor's undersuit. (Colonist/Hero/Adept)

Zombie Shepard – born to unknown parents, death unknown. Zombie Shepard is, well, a zombie, and from a brief examination appears to have been so for at least two years, perhaps longer. She is unable to communicate by anything more than moans and rough gestures, nor can she use any weapon requiring more accuracy than a shotgun, but appears to be unable to be killed. Zombie stands 6'1" though it's possible she's lost some height since becoming undead. (Earthborn/Unknown/Soldier)


	14. Shepards: 1, Saren: 0

_Author's Note: And so Virmire ends. There's all kinds of awesomeness in here, I hope. As always, I love reviews, the more specific the better!_

* * *

Twenty-four Shepards, led by Charles, trooped through the jungles of Virmire. Kirrahe was relaying them directions through Williams, while Rentola passed along some other info through Alenko. "This should be a walk in the park," Inara said casually, flicking aside part of a plant with her biotics.

"You got that right," Oksana said, scanning ahead through her scope. "No measly crowd of clones is going to stop us." Her voice trailed off on the last two words as they reached the edge of the jungle. Arrayed before them was an army, at least three or four thousand krogan, half that many geth humanoid units, all in ranks before a five meter tall wall with auto-cannons every fifty meters.

"Holy crap," five Shepards said in unison.

"Power Glove team," Alenko came over the radio, sounding disgruntled, "prepare for frontal assault in five."

"Roger dodger," Xander chirped. Charles was fairly sure he'd picked the name just to annoy the lieutenant.

"Alright, everyone, here's what we're going to do," Charles said. "Soldiers and infiltrators, pick krogan in the front ranks to shoot. Engineers and Sentinels, prep overloads for those cannons. Adepts, singularities right behind the front ranks, break up a charge. Vanguards, intercept anyone who comes close. As soon as we get the signal," he grinned, teeth glinting in the harsh light, "we shout our favorite catchphrase."

"Ale and whores?" Eric and Polarity joked simultaneously.

"Communications are down," Williams said over the radio. "Good work, Shadow Team."

They waited, listening quietly as the satellite uplinks and then the flying drones were disabled. "Power Glove team, distractions in three, two, one," Alenko counted off, and then a flurry of explosions happened off to their right.

Twenty-four Shepards stepped out of the jungle. **"I AM COMMANDER SHEPARD,"** they roared. The first three ranks of the krogan toppled backwards, entangling themselves with the ones behind them, while the geth sparked and twitched before regaining control of their systems. Gunfire immediately blossomed from their group, as the still prone krogan went floating up into the air, impairing the ones behind them as well. Several auto-cannons exploded in their housings, and one of them slewed around to open fire on the broken ranks below.

"Eat hot justice, suckers," Ubon taunted as it cut down the first five krogan to reach their feet. The next wave of overloads and sabotage commands blew a gaping hole in the geth lines.

But their surprise was short-lived, and there were thousands of cloned and constructed troops to the merely two dozen of them. "I think it's time for the unified shouts again," Kohana said right before plunging a knife into a krogan's eye.

"I have to agree," Sachiko shouted, blowing apart a geth as it was aiming a shotgun at Lilitu's back. "On three!"

They shouted again, a semi-circular wave of force bowling their attackers backwards a handful of steps. "This isn't good," Yvette shouted, controlling a singularity with each hand as blood started to trickle out of her nose. "They're bunched up too close together!" Waldo's sniper rifle appeared over her shoulder long enough to take a krogan in the throat, then vanished again.

"If we fall back, we lose visibility," Victor countered, an assault rifle (blessedly full with ammo blocks) in each hand as he gunned down the geth on their left flank.

From their left, a trio of rockets came blasting in from somewhere invisible through the chaos, blowing holes in the back ranks. "Power Glove, we're giving you some support," Williams said. "Hit them again with the whammy while we lay down the heavy weapons!"

They shouted again, using it to fall back a step to the new edge of the jungle, bullet-shattered foliage trampled under their boots as they continued firing. Gina hacked a geth unit, cackling, "Dance, puppet!" as it shoved its shotgun into a krogan armpit and pulled the trigger.

"Hey, didn't they say something about heavy weapons?" Quistis said, moments before a familiar whistling sound came from overhead.

Fifteen of them shouted, "Incoming!" at the same time, their voice setting a reverberating shield around the group, reflecting several shots right before the guided mortar rounds crashed into the midst of the krogan formation.

"Yeah, how do you like _them_ apples?" Polarity taunted, blasting a lightning bolt from her horn into the geth crowd, ricocheting and arcing off their shields.

"Again! **I AM COMMANDER SHEPARD**," they shouted at Charles' prompt, their opponents blasted away again. Despite their unique edge, and the help from the STG, they were still badly outnumbered, and with every shout, the krogan drew closer.

* * *

Meanwhile, Angela paused to overload another indoctrinated salarian, letting Garrus remove his brains with a sniper round. "I thought Saren was supposed to have this gigantic army of krogan and geth," Wrex complained. "So where the hell are they? We've hardly seen anything but drones, indoctrinated salarians, and husks.

"There's an asari saying about taunting fate," Liara chastised him as they opened another door. "I really don't want to know how many are out there, but from the constant shouts, I'm hoping they're all on the other side of the base."

"Humph," the krogan complained, right before they opened the door into a laboratory. "Hah, more krogan! Die, you scummy traitor!" he roared as he charged, firing his shotgun.

"A krogan in a lab coat?" Tali marveled before putting three rounds in a husk. "Now I've seen everything."

"Have you seen a geth in clown makeup?" Angela asked, hacking a console and data-stripping it.

"Ah, no. Point taken," the quarian replied, voice still confused.

"So Wrex," Garrus asked as they moved through another door, back to the exterior, "what are you going to do after we've saved the galaxy from Saren and are all big heroes?"

The krogan grinned, blowing a drone out of the sky. "Easy. I'm not going to be a mercenary. I'm going to get a manor house on Bekenstein!" His voice sounded fairly excited, as everyone else looked at him in various levels of confusion. "I'm gonna hire lots of guards, and make them all do night patrols. Then I can sneak up behind them, ask, 'Did you hear that?' and watch them jump."

"So, you're going to be the Citadel's premier krogan stand-up comic," Tali said doubtfully.

"At least then people would laugh at my jokes," Wrex lamented. "Nobody ever wants to laugh at a krogan, like we're going to rip their arms off if it wasn't a joke."

"That's because krogan _do_ tend to rip people's arms off," Garrus said, hitting the button for the elevator.

"Really? And when was the last time you saw me rip someone's arms off?" he complained as the exited into an office, drawing a terrified sob from behind one of the desks. "Besides today, I mean," Wrex bluffed.

"Oh Goddess, please don't kill me! I only work here!" Rana protested. "I'll even let you into Saren's office, just don't kill me!"

The four of them glanced at Angela, who weighed the pros and cons briefly. "Have you been listening, the last twenty minutes?"

"You mean, the constant shouts of 'I am Commander Shepard,' that are shaking the whole facility? Kind of hard to miss them."

Angela grinned, raising her pistol. "I am Commander Shepard," she said, somehow perfectly in unison with her brethren outside. She fired the pistol, taking the petrified researcher cleanly in one eye. "Tali, get that door open. It's time to end this."

"Angela, you didn't even give her a chance," Liara protested weakly.

"If she was working here, for any longer than yesterday," Tali commented as she hacked, "then she was just as indoctrinated as those salarians we killed downstairs in the cells."

Still torn, Liara nonetheless followed as they descended yet another elevator into the very heart of Saren's lair.

* * *

Outside, the Shepards regrouped. They were now a hundred meters back from the original edge of the jungle, the intervening stretch having been destroyed by bullets, shrapnel, and biotics. The krogan and geth army was down to a quarter its original size now, having finally detached one portion to go after Kirrahe's team and their mortars and rocket launchers.

"Hey Victor," Marid prompted, "tell us one of those dumb inspiring grunt sayings."

"What, you mean like, 'We're not surrounded, we are in a target-rich environment' kind of things?" he asked, pausing to whip a krogan in the throat with one assault rifle, kick him in the quad, then shove the other rifle into his mouth and hold down the trigger.

"Yes, lovely," Deirdre muttered, taking a geth right in the flashlight and sending it tumbling backwards as scrap parts. "Those sayings _suck_."

They were now encircled completely, several hundred krogan pressing them on all sides. With no room to dodge, the best they could do was rotate positions, letting those with fresher shields take spots on the outside to block bullets. Inara had been reduced to medic, though at the rate they were using up medigel, she wouldn't be for much longer.

They roared again, giving them momentary breathing room. All four adepts were sporting nosebleeds, as were the vanguards, though Sachiko's was due to an unlucky krogan elbow and not power overuse. "Overloads on three," Gina shouted, and they aimed at the last knot of geth troops. "Good, now we just have to get through eight or nine hundred more krogan!" she shouted as the last of the synthetics fell.

"Sounds like a piece of cake," Talya said, slamming a krogan away to put a couple pistol rounds in his knee. "Angela better hurry her ass up so we can get out of here!"

* * *

Having gained the _full_ beacon vision, and talked (however briefly) to Nazara, Angela was helping Wrex and Robo cart the nuke off the cargo door, plopping it down in the courtyard. "Is this thing armed?"

"Remote arming and detonation are within my parameters," Robo said, moving over to grab three more boxy contraptions. "Automated defenses have been constructed from available Normandy supplies." The robot set them down and activated them, three turrets popping up and sweeping the area professionally.

"Shadow Team, we need extraction," Williams suddenly came over the radio. "We're stuck at the top of the anti-air tower."

"Understood. Joker, dust off, be ready for a hot pick-up," she ordered, motioning. The other five fell in with her, and they blew apart the krogan reinforcements moving to keep Williams and Kirrahe pinned. Reaching the top of the tower, they reconsolidated quickly, checking weapons and treating injuries.

"I don't know how you've done this, Shepard," Saren's augmented voice echoed over the area, causing the battle below to at least pause. Every Shepard located him quickly, hovering on a board-like device, out over the first wall and away from the tower. "I think it's time to end this charade and prove my worth to the Reapers."

Only then did Angela realize he was hovering over Alenko and Rentola's squad. Something fell from his board, even as she was opening fire on him, and a moment later, an explosion covered the entire squad.

All twenty-six Shepards had their eyes locked on Saren as he hovered, smug, hundreds of meters away from them all. **"I AM COMMANDER SHEPARD, AND I WILL ****_DESTROY YOU!_****"** they all shouted at once.

Distance was probably the only thing that saved the traitorous Spectre, as the force of their voice and focus swatted him out of the air, flailing wildly with his board until he managed to mostly stabilize, bouncing his board several times in another courtyard before tumbling loose and out of sight. The entire group on the tower stared down, looking at the massive crater, three times the size of the Mako, where Kaidan, Rentola, and seven loyal STG members had been standing one minute before.

"Joker," Angela said grimly, "get us out of here." The Normandy came roaring back in, turning her defensive cannons – meant for space warfare – on the krogan below, swooping down to pick up the rest of the Shepards and flee.

Angela watched the holographic camera as the facility vanished in a nuclear fireball. Even if they'd wanted to go look for any retrievable body parts, there hadn't been time. The only good part of his death was that Saren was probably dead in that same explosion. And if, somehow, he wasn't …

Well, she had twenty-five Shepards to back her up. "He will _die_," she promised Kaidan's memory.


	15. Interludes on the Citadel

_Insert your Author's Note here: Thanks, IE7 and a very limited time span, and thanks reviewers for pointing it out to remind me to come back and edit. Some short interludes on the Citadel, giving some of the Shepards (and my favorite canon teammate) more screen time._

* * *

They flew directly to the Citadel, the few hours in transit enough to drive any introvert to despair. Angela spent most of it in her quarters, staring at the screen, trying fitfully to type up the notification letter to Alenko's family. Several of the others had stopped in to try and help her, to one extent or another – even Zombie, though "I think he had delectable brains" was not what she thought his family would want to hear. Finally, thirty minutes out, Robo entered the room, and extended its omni-tool display towards her. "Your emotional attachment to your crew is interfering with your capability to perform your duties," it said simply. "Notification has been completed."

She read through it quickly, trying not to sigh. Surprisingly, it was accurate without breaking security protocol, though it did seem a little cold. "Thanks, Robo."

"Tasking complete. All Shepards and crew are requesting shore leave on Citadel while you brief the Council on status of Saren and Sovereign."

"Wait, why me?" she complained. "Just because I'm the original?"

"Correct." While she was still spluttering and trying to come up with a counter-argument, Robo turned and left.

Grumbling slightly, she grabbed Kirrahe, Williams, and Victor, and went to see the Council. Even grabbing Victor, she had to consider an accomplishment, as he had been about to grab an aircar to the marketplace and browse weapons mods. "You owe me for this," he complained as they landed at the top of the tower.

Over the next half an hour, Angela explained everything that had happened on Virmire, with some helping details from Kirrahe and Williams. Victor described the force of krogan they had destroyed. Overall, the Council seemed pretty impressed, maybe even grateful, which would have been a first. "So, the next thing to do is get a group of ships together to go to Ilos," she concluded.

"That's not going to happen, Commander," Sparatus said. "We're not going to risk a war with the Terminus Systems with Saren dead."

"He's only probably dead," Victor muttered. "He could have escaped the blast."

"Even if Saren did escape, we're talking about a planet with possibly-functional Prothean technology, that's never been seen by our civilizations!" Angela protested. "You want to let it just sit there?"

"If it hasn't been touched in fifty thousand years, it can last a few more months," Udina said. "Let me handle this, Commander."

"You scum," Victor growled, moving towards Udina as Williams tried to stop him. "Even if Saren is dead, the geth still follow Sovereign!"

"Really, that's quite a ridiculous tale," Tevos said dismissively. "That ship is clearly just an advanced geth warship."

"The Normandy is locked down," Udina oozed. "Shepard's not going anywhere until you tell her."

"You son of a bitch!" Angela shouted, and Williams, still trying to hold back Victor, could do nothing as she stalked over, grabbed the ambassador by the lapels, and pulled him closer. "I'm going to collect the rest of me, and you're going to regret this," she promised, whirling away and stalking back to the aircar, Victor on her heels.

Kirrahe watched them go, turning back to the Council. "After what I witnessed on Virmire, I have one piece of advice for the Council. Let the Shepard win."

* * *

At the aircar stand next to Barla Von's office, the two Petrovsky's were pressed back against the guardrail of the park, seriously considering making a run for it. "How is your constant shouting at her going to help the baby?" Deirdre shouted in his face. "What kind of ancient macho BS did you subscribe to? Just because your brother died doesn't make her your wife now!"

Right beside her, Yvette was calmly, even coldly, tearing Mrs. Petrovsky to pieces. "There are more than two options here, obviously. Genetic scans, in-utero scans. Any competent human-specialized doctor should be able to tell you whether your child is going to need any kind of therapy. Instead of arguing with your brother-in-law, why aren't you trying to find a solution?"

Both of them were cut off unexpectedly by hands on their shoulders, spinning them around, and then propelling them in the direction of the marketplace. "I'm so terribly sorry about that. Some people just have no manners whatsoever," Waldo's voice came from somewhere in the general area.

As two Shepards and a disembodied voice walked away, Mrs. Petrovsky fainted dead away.

* * *

In the middle of the Presidium, on the walkway in front of the krogan statue, Eric and Wrex squared off against each other, Havok, Sachiko, and Marid cheering them on. "I think I figured out why you're giving me so much trouble," Eric grunted out, one arm straining against Wrex's hump, the other holding back one krogan hand from his throat.

"Why is that?" the battlemaster asked, planting his feet more firmly and shoving backwards. Eric's feet slid a few inches before he regained his grip and pushed harder, tilting the krogan backwards.

"Vanguard training focuses mostly on groups," he forced out, shoving suddenly away and circling to one side. "Taking out small groups, gang tactics, using them against one another." He lunged forward, grabbing Wrex around the waist, shoving him backwards into the railing and just barely managing to get the krogan's feet off the deck.

"Why should that make such a difference?" Wrex asked curiously, his question interrupted twice as he dished out some nasty punches to the rib cage.

"It's been so long since I fought one-on-one with someone of my skill level, I'm out of practice." Eric dropped him, ducking backward from a headbutt and kicking solidly into Wrex's abdomen. As the krogan stumbled backwards, the weakened railing gave way, dumping him into the lake.

"I can't swim!" he roared, in a panic, flailing around, water already lapping around his head and shoulders. "Help me, you pyjak!"

Suddenly worried, Eric leaped in next to him, only to suddenly have his feet swept out from under him and land, submerged. He sat up in the shallow water and spit out a mouthful of water in Wrex's direction. "I think that's cheating, old man," he said dourly, as the chortling krogan splashed easily through the two-foot-deep water back to the walkway, climbing up with a little help from Sachiko.

"Sneaky, and well fought," she complimented him. "Let's get you out of those wet clothes and get a drink, what do you say?"

He blinked up at her, frowning. "Are you hitting on me?"

"What if I am?" she asked coyly, running one hand over the bony forehead plate.

In response, he shoved her into the water too, managing to knock over Eric again. "Try to keep up," he taunted both of them, then started jogging away.

"Oh, it is _on_," they both said, leaping out of the water and chasing after him, leaving Havok and Marid, collapsed on each other, breathless with laughter.

* * *

Outside of Flux, Bradley and Charles listened in consternation to the embassy clerk's tale of woe. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" the soldier asked.

"I think so Charles, but if they called them Sadness Meals little children wouldn't buy them," the adept responded.

"What?" the clerk asked in utter confusion. Rather than answer, the two Shepards each grabbed him by an arm. "Hey, let go of me!"

"You're going to see the doctor, and get some treatment for that addiction," Charles told him as they frog marched him towards the door.

"Like it or not," Bradley agreed.

Behind them, Oksana was staring intently at the increasingly nervous salarian as Talya examined the device he gave them. "And this thing is foolproof?"

"Of course it is!"

"Then why were you kicked out?" Talya asked suspiciously.

"They watch closely to see who's winning too often, that's all," he said. "I think your Earth casinos do the same thing."

The two of them looked at each other, and shrugged. "Sounds like fun," Talya said.

"We get to keep the winnings, right?" Oksana added.

"Of course, of course! I just want the device back," he exclaimed, wringing his hands nervously.

"We'll think about it," Talya said over her shoulder as they ascended into the club.

* * *

Still on board the Normandy, Garrus cautiously opened the hatch to the Mako, peering out. He had made a great show of leaving the ship, then used his C-Sec knowledge of the Citadel to sneak back on board and hide. It had been thirty minutes now, and he was sure he had lost the unicorn in the back alleys around the academy. Still, you didn't get to be a sniper, or a top C-Sec operative, by being sloppy.

The cargo bay appeared to be empty, even Tali had graciously allowed Adams and Robo to drag her away from the drive core, and everyone couldn't wait to get off the ship and into less crowded places. He swung the hatch the rest of the way open, and dropped down to the floor silently. He could sneak back out now, ask Bailey to give him a lift out to Zakera ward somewhere. No way Polarity could track him by aircar.

His train of thought was cut short as the elevator dropped in front of him, and the unicorn sauntered out. "I knew you were hiding in here somewhere," she said wantonly. "Why don't you get out of that armor, and I'll show you something to calibrate."

He was trapped, she was between him and the elevator, and he didn't think he could lock the Mako sufficiently to keep her out. "Oh spirits," Garrus muttered under his breath.

* * *

Elsewhere on the Normandy, Jared and Flora locked the door to the CO's cabin, the room now crowded with bunks and personal lockers. "Now that we have some privacy, we can finally get down to business," Jared purred, running one biotically glowing hand over her face as she unzipped her jumpsuit.

Twenty minutes later, they both exited the cabin, their faces a mix a nausea and disappointment. Halfway up the stairs, she grabbed his hand. "We never talk about this again."

"Naturally," he whispered back. "As long as we don't have to keep up the pretense in front of anyone else, either."

She just shuddered, resting her forehead against the wall.

* * *

Inside Flux, Angela entered, with Zombie, Gina, and Inara behind her. The pulsing lights were enough that, combined with a helmet, Zombie was passing unnoticed through the crowd. She spied Anderson at a table, moving over to join him. "You here to commiserate?" she asked bitterly.

"Angela, child, I agree with you," he said, sipping from his beer. "Even if you did manage to nuke Saren, leaving that planet alone for the geth to plunder it is folly."

Inara sighed heavily, grabbing a margarita from a waitress and taking a big sip. "The moment we all converge on the ship, though, they'll know something is going on."

Anderson nodded. "Only a handful of Shepards can go. I'd recommend only however many you can fit in the Mako, and have the rest here. Just in case that Conduit thing you talked about is still operational. Udina's already talking about having all of you psychologically evaluated."

"Iiiaaaa oooo ffiiiirrrr," Zombie moaned.

"Uh, right," Anderson responded, taking another gulp from his beer.

"Fine. I'll figure out which other four Shepards are going with me," Angela sighed. "But then how do we get the Normandy out of here?"

Gina grinned, slouching down in her seat. "I have an idea about that," she said. "I just need to borrow a couple of other Shepards. We can make this work."

"Alright." She turned on her omni-tool. "All Shepards, we're going to have a 'Fuck the Council' party in Chora's Den. One hour." She looked over at Gina. "Think that's enough time?"

The other engineer's grin grew broader. "Oh hell yes," she said.

* * *

Ninety minutes later, the general crew of the Normandy had been recalled to the ship. Lurking behind Joker's chair was Angela, Eric, Lilitu, Neville, and Quistis. "Uh, could you guys give me, yanno, a _little_ space?"

"Sorry," they said in unison, just enough creepy factor to make him twitch.

* * *

Inside Udina's office, the ambassador sat at his desk, allegedly doing paperwork, but actually checking his stock portfolio, when the door opened. Gina entered, flanked by Deirdre and Inara, those two backed by Yvette, Talya, Oksana, and Ubon. "What is the meaning of this?" he blustered.

All seven of them pointed at him, and ordered, "Go the fuck to sleep." Without another word, he toppled sideways out of his chair, snoring. Gina moved around to his computer, typing quickly, and gave a thumbs up.

* * *

Inside the Normandy, the light turned green, Joker hit the button, and they cruised silently away from the Citadel.


	16. Ilos, Interrupted

_Author's Note: And so we come to, and leave, Ilos, where our intrepid Shepard Squad finds out a little more about their situation, and get to make the Council look like idiots. Not that __that's__ hard., or anything. As always, I love reviews! Fistful just hit 200 reviews, and some lucky guy named Wanderer D was the #200._

* * *

The Mako bounced heavily on the surface, Angela slamming on the brakes. In the gun turret, Lilitu opened fire, bullets perforating two geth as she tried to yank the cannon towards Saren, only to have the door slam closed in their faces. "God damnit," Quistis snarled from the back seat. "Five fucking seconds, and we'd have run him over!"

"No time to worry about it now," Angela said, motioning Neville to drop open the hatch. "There's got to be door controls around here somewhere, and the faster we get it open, the faster we can kill him."

"That's the spirit," Neville said, dropping out and scanning the area with his pistol. "Oh, bugger," he muttered, glancing outside the narrow blocking point.

"What is it now?" Quistis asked darkly.

"Oh, nothing much, just a dozen or so geth platforms backed up by three armatures." His British stoicism was in full force as he ducked around the corner long enough to take down one geth's shields, ducking back into cover as Lilitu blew its head off.

"Why is it always armatures?" Eric grumbled, waiting for the first geth to come around the corner, then grabbing it by the flashlight long enough to stick his shotgun inside its shields and fire.

"Just because that one almost stepped on you doesn't mean you need to get all upset about it," Quistis told him as she blew apart another one.

Angela just shook her head, shorting out the power supply of another geth platform. "I'm wondering why Joker didn't just drop us out there," she said. "Plenty of open space to drop the Mako into."

"Who cares," Quistis growled. "There's geth to blow up!"

They cleared out the regular geth fairly quickly, then the armatures with a careful combination of overloads and bullets, not taking more than some shield slams for it. They moved out into the Prothean complex. "I do hope that these statues aren't what the Protheans actually looked like," Neville said as they jogged down a ramp, shooting at several hoppers.

"Why, because you'd hate to see them in Fornax with a hanar?" Eric quipped, snagging one hopper mid leap and slamming it into a stone pillar, making it easy pickings for the rest of the squad.

Lilitu made a retching noise from inside her helmet. "Well, quite, but also because they seem unusually like some of the writings of one Lovecraft," Neville said. "Pre-spaceflight author. Lots of stuff on horrors from beyond our reality. Also, lots of tentacles."

"Enough with the tentacles already," Lilitu muttered. "You're going to make me puke in my armor."

They passed quickly through the area, leaving dozens of shattered geth platforms behind them until they finally found the controls to open the door. Naturally, it was behind several juggernauts and flanked by a half dozen armatures. "Gosh, this looks like a walk in the park," Quistis muttered, as she and Lilitu scanned the large room from their cover on a raised balcony.

Eric looked over at Angela. "Can't you hack those armatures, if they're not active yet?"

She scanned the floor below quickly, marking the locations of the control panels. "Left side, or right? And I'm going to need a lot of cover," she muttered.

"We've got you covered," the other four said in unison. Fighting the urge to twitch, she crept down the ramp, Eric a blocky and slightly noisier presence behind her. Along the right side of the room, she paused behind the last piece of cover, so far still unnoticed by the geth, and glanced back at Eric, nodding nervously.

Grinning widely, the Vanguard readied his shotgun, and stepped boldly out into the open. Lilitu and Quistis fired at the same instant, blowing two of the smaller platforms apart. "Candygram for Mongo!" he shouted, blasting away at the charging juggernaut, getting an extra shot in as Neville's gravity slam interrupted its charge.

The panel was extremely complex, and being rushed for time, Angela didn't bother with trying to bypass it. Instead, she just dumped omni-gel into it as fast as her omni-tool could handle it. She wasn't sure if geth had emotions the way that regular humanoids did, but their body language in the brief moment before the armature blew them apart seemed very 'oh shit' to her.

With the geth clear, they hustled up the ramp on the other side, pausing as the damaged beacon there began replaying the Prothean message. "So, the Reapers appeared around the Citadel?" Quistis muttered in confusion.

"Sounds like it," Lilitu agreed.

"How did they get there without using the relays, then?" Neville wondered, as the device began to repeat the last few words over and over again.

"I don't care right now," Eric growled. "Not while every moment we spend talking lets Saren get further away from us."

"Look on the bright side," Angela said, having triggered the remote door control. "If anything happens on the Citadel, there's twenty-one other Shepards there to take care of things, backed up by Wrex, Garrus, Williams, Tali, and Liara."

* * *

_Meanwhile, on the Citadel_

All the other Shepards stood in the park-like area near the embassies. They had managed to collect the rest of the non-Shepard squadmates. And they were all standing there, surrounded by three hundred of C-Sec's finest. Somewhere further behind them, the Council, along with Udina, were shouting orders at the various Shepards through their omni-tools.

"This is getting old, really quickly," Xander muttered. All four voices were blurred into a nonsensical babble coming through the same speaker.

"I have to agree," Oksana said. "I'm not too eager to open fire on C-Sec, but we can't just stand around here, either."

"I'm glad for that," Garrus muttered nearby. "I was working with these guys just a few weeks ago."

"Afraid they won't invite you to the official barbeque anymore?" Talya chuckled.

"I suppose we could give them a good old Virmire greeting," Bradley said, just loudly enough to be heard. "On three?"

They all waited, and shouted in unison, **"I AM COMMANDER SHEPARD!"** The C-Sec officers all went tumbling backwards, most of their shields disabled, and a clear line of sight to the Council. **"I FACED DOWN THOUSANDS OF KROGAN. DO NOT TEST ME!"** The words were perfectly clear all the way out to the observatories at the tips of each Ward.

Tevos and Sparatus were still standing, gaping at them, as the C-Sec officers attempted to get back onto their feet. The asari looked ready to say something, then stopped to look past them at a sudden high-pitched whirring sound, accompanied with a bright light. "That's not a good sound," Xander said slowly, as everyone turned to look.

The miniature mass relay, what everyone believed to be an art sculpture, was now whirling up just like its kilometer-long space brethren. With a sudden burst of light, two geth colossi emerged, clanking forwards to flank the relay. "Aw, nutbunnies," Oksana muttered.

"Shepards D through M, with me!" Bradley shouted, grabbing Liara and Williams as well, already crossing to the other side of the Presidium waterway. "Everyone else, with Charles! Let's show those geth who's in charge!"

They split up quickly, the groups flanking down the sides of the Presidium, as more geth continued to pour through the relay, capturing anyone to slow or unlucky enough to be within reach, already setting up the dragon's teeth next to the elevator to the Council chambers and holding down the bodies for them to activate.

* * *

_Back on Ilos_

Angela slammed the Mako to a halt as the force barrier sprang up in front of them. "It's a trap!" Eric cried, but after several seconds, nothing happened. "A really disappointing trap," he finally muttered.

"That looks like a door," Neville pointed. "Perhaps the off switch is down there?"

"We're sure as hell not getting forward," Quistis complained. "Might as well see how many geth are there to blow up."

Thus fortified with this solid, if emotionally unsatisfying, logic, they dropped out of the Mako one at a time, moving down the short hallway and into an elevator. "I'm curious about one thing," Neville said as it crawled downwards. "I can see the Citadel and a fifty thousand year old Prothean ruin having the same door controls. But why are they on every pre-fab colonization building we've fought mercenaries and Cerberus? Human tech should be somewhat more different."

The other four all looked at each other. "Is this one of those things, like why you park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?" Lilitu asked as the doors opened.

To their surprise, the path before them was empty of geth, cloned krogan, indoctrinated asari, or anything but dust. At the far end was a beacon, seemingly larger than the others. As they cautiously approached it, a damaged hologram sprang to life in front of it. "You are a paradox. You are not indoctrinated, and not machine. That outcome was foreseen. Scans of the dark energy inherent in your paradox predict a likelihood of a seventeen percent chance of the complete obliteration of this universe."

The five of them looked at each other in confusion. "We're a paradox?"

The hologram spun around itself. "'We' implies multitude. There is you, in different versions. You made yourself a paradox, and then you summoned you to yourself."

"Anyone else know what the hell that meant?" Quistis said darkly.

"I … think so," Angela said. "Who, or what, are you?"

"I am Vigil, the computerized intelligence built to maintain this research facility. From here, my creator, Ksad Ishan, and the last remaining Prothean scientists activated the Conduit, and disabled the signal that allowed the Reapers to appear, trapping them in dark space."

They all stared at each other again. "Wow," Lilitu sighed. "Can we fit this in the Mako?"

"Are you kidding?" Eric grumbled. "We can barely fit ourselves in the Mako, and you want to bring a giant spear of Prothean computer?"

"I do not have the power reserves to maintain any transit," Vigil interrupted. "The Conduit activation is quickly draining what little remains. The signal to summon the Reapers can still be broadcast. The last task set to me by Ksad Ishan was to develop a computer countermeasure." All of their omni-tools beeped as they received a sudden download of data. "I estimate five minutes of power remaining to reach the Conduit and pass to the Citadel."

Blinking quickly, Angela motioned for everyone else, whispered quickly, and they turned to face the VI. "I command you to live," they said in unison, the ripple of their voice nearly tearing the hologram apart.

"Power reserves increased. I now have direct control over the Conduit. Chance of complete universal destruction increased to eighteen percent."

"Hold it," Eric said. "How is that going to destroy the universe?"

"The paradox inherent in multiple versions of you existing together consumes dark energy and strains the seventh, tenth, and fifteenth dimensions of this universal reality. Each usage of the paradoxical harmonics has a cumulative effect."

"If I understood that correctly, each time we do our unison talk, we're breaking the fabric of space-time," Neville said. "Smashing."

"That's putting it mildly," Angela said, icy sweat running down her spine. "Let's get back to the Mako. If we don't get there before Sovereign can get into the Citadel, we're all going to be dead anyway."

They rushed through the canyons, overgrown and submerged in water, running over the smaller geth in their way, flooring it downhill and shooting past the Colossi to burst through the Conduit, rolling the Mako several times before crashing to a halt over several geth.

Pulling themselves out, they were surrounded by the crackle of gunfire and flames, and as they took down the few husks within range, the other two groups converged on them. All twenty-six Shepards passed the information from Vigil through them, not even conscious of the process. Then, as one, they turned towards the elevator to the Council chamber. "We saw Saren come through here," Wrex said, "but we couldn't get close enough to even slow him down. He's already on the way up."

**"****WE KNOW."** They couldn't help the voice now, this close to what they had felt before, right after being made a Spectre, when there was only a handful of them.

"We're going after him. Right?" Garrus asked, suddenly nervous.

Angela fought the pull of the collective. "You are. There was a Prothean VI, it gave us a program to upload." With a few quick finger motions, she sent the data to Tali. "Just keep Saren busy long enough for Tali to upload the program, and we'll have beaten Sovereign."

"But, Commander, what about you?" Williams asked, nervously fingering her rifle.

Angela had already been subsumed back into the collective. **"WE ARE GOING DOWN."**

* * *

Dun dun dun!


	17. The End of the Universe

Five species fought through waves of geth drones and indoctrinated geth soldiers. They had hardly worked alongside each other, mostly going along as adjuncts to the various Shepards. But Garrus' tactical training and Wrex's experience bore them up, fighting furiously. Tali hacked auto-turrets taken offline by the geth, while Liara's biotics sent opponents flying off into the vacuum around the station.

At last, they reached the entry to the Council chamber, after a furious ten minutes of blood-pounding combat. It was empty but for Saren, standing at the terminal where the Council normally stood. "That's far enough, Arterius," Garrus said, his sniper rifle centered right at the back of the rogue Spectre's head. "Time for you to stand down."

He turned around, taking in the five of them, surprise clearly written across his face. "What is this? No Shepards? Not a single one?"

"They had better things to do, and we don't need babysitters to take out garbage like you," Wrex threatened.

"Don't be so sure about that," Saren countered, reaching for his weapon as he threw himself sideways. Garrus' bullet still impacted his shields as Ashley's assault rifle followed his dash to the side. Tali was already busy running to the opposite side of the room, trying to get around him to the terminal to upload the code.

Their firefight was surprisingly brief, with four of them turning massive amounts of bullets and biotics on the rogue turian. When at last he lay on the ground, bleeding, Williams walked up to him, her face stony with cold, hard rage. "I want Alenko back, you son of a bitch," she said, leveling her assault rifle at his head, and holding down the trigger until the overheat warning started beeping. She jumped in surprise as Wrex put one comforting hand on her shoulder, staring down at the ruined mass that had been the face of the galaxy's most notorious Spectre.

"The code's uploaded," Tali said. All of them looked up through the clear panels on the ceiling, the battle between Sovereign and the turian and asari fleets barely visible as flashes of light.

"This is Normandy can anyone read me?" Joker's voice suddenly broadcast through all their omni-tools, almost unintelligible with static. "The Destiny Ascension is nearly destroyed. What should we do?"

"Joker, get in there and save the Council," Garrus ordered.

"Garrus? Where's Angela? Or any of the other Shepards?" Joker asked in confusion.

"They're elsewhere on the station," Garrus said grimly, and cut the channel. "I just hope they're accomplishing whatever they set out to do," he said grimly.

* * *

Twenty-six Shepards emerged out of the Keeper maintenance shafts into a large walkway at the bottom of the tower area. Surprisingly, most of the area was walled with transparent panels, giving them a clear view of the nebula below. Other paths connected with theirs, several pieces of unfamiliar technology glowing with sullen light. They started forward, only to be stopped by a hologram, flickering unsteadily between an image of a small boy, and a suited man with glowing trefoil eyes. "You shouldn't be here," the boy said.

**"****WHAT ARE YOU?"** they thundered.

"I am the Catalyst," the boy said. "From here, I – _control the Reapers, Shepard!_" Mid-sentence, the hologram shifted to the man, pointing a finger belligerently at them. "They are the solution to the chaos of organic life. You are an anomaly."

**"****I AM COMMANDER SHEPARD. I AM A PROTECTOR OF HUMANITY, OF THE GALAXY. IF YOU CONTROL THE REAPERS, YOU WILL BE DESTROYED."** They stepped forward in unison, weapons and biotics raised in an instant.

"If you destroy me, you consign yourselves to extinction," the boy tried to threaten. "Synthetics will destroy you. _I can use them, control them,_" the man flicked back into being, then back to the boy.

The group of Shepards paused, momentarily, then shook their heads in perfect unison. **"THE REAPERS WILL NOT EXTERMINATE US. WE WILL SURVIVE. YOU WILL ****_DIE_****."** The entire station shook with the force of their declaration, and the boy fuzzed and blurred, clearly affected by their reality-warping declaration, but still functional.

Out in space, ten kilometers past the points of the wards, Sovereign suddenly cut off his battle with the organic forces, diving past the Citadel. Its master was in trouble. **_"DIE_****."** It slowed, whirling around, as the very structure of the tower threatened to tear away from the Citadel. Sovereign charged up its beam weapon, preparing to fire a short burst, even as it commanded every geth unit still in the station to rush to that place.

**_"_****_DIE."_**

On the third utterance, the hologram shredded away. Every power source on the Citadel went dark. So did Sovereign. The heretic geth on board, bereft of leadership, evacuated hurriedly to their dropships in the confusion, fleeing back into the dark reaches of the Perseus Veil.

In the dark, empty space outside the Milky Way, twenty-thousand light years from the edge of that galaxy, a lone red dwarf star blazed inside a Dyson Sphere. Every Reaper, save for one, was shut down in hibernation mode, only the first among them drowsing through the ages, waiting for the signal to come. But when the Catalyst went dark, so too did Harbinger. The Reapers would sit there, unmoving, until the relentless solar radiation finally shut them down for good.

* * *

_Alpha Universe, six months earlier_

Jack Harper inhaled sharply, opening his mouth as he sucked in air, coughing hard. One hand reached inside his jacket, feeling the cracked armor plate underneath it. "That bastard," he hissed out, remembering the moment just moments before when John Shepard ignored his order, pulling the trigger on him.

He carefully rose to his feet, looking over at Anderson, slumped on the floor, dead from the round through his guts. But Shepard was nowhere to be found. What he did find, stumbling over it, was one of the large floor tiles missing. There was nothing underneath it, so after a moment he looked up, spying where the elevator panel had gone.

Scowling, he focused the dark energy he could now use, and started to lift off the floor, pausing to check his gun first. Then he yanked the panel down, lifting himself four stories into the air, landing heavily on the walkway above. Shepard was there, stumbling towards a set of power conduits, pistol already raised. Harper simply _knew_ what was going to happen here – he would open fire, and then the Reapers would be destroyed.

For a brief moment, John Shepard just thought he had tripped over his own feet, watching the pistol fly out of his hand and skitter down the walkway to bounce off the power couplings. Then the pain and the sound caught up to his exhausted brain, and he looked over his shoulder, gritting his teeth against the sudden pain of the bullet wound. To his surprise, the Illusive Man stood there, staring at the hologram. "You will stop now," the Catalyst ordered him.

The leader of Cerberus gritted his teeth, dark energy gathering around him. "No," he said simply.

"We control you!" it said again.

"No," TIM said again, stepping forward again, then moving down the path towards the control rods.

Unable to help himself, John started laughing, a broken, desperate sound, causing both of them to turn and stare at him. "Why are you laughing?" the Catalyst asked, clearly confused.

He grinned harshly, starting to pull himself forward on his elbows. "Half a billion years of studying organics, and you don't have the first fucking clue about evolution," he taunted. TIM had slowed to listen, still holding the gun warily, even if John doubted the terrorist kingpin could hit him from forty meters away. "There's no such thing as a 'final stage' of evolution." He even paused to do his best Udina air quotes.

"This thing actually said that?" TIM asked incredulously. "That's what the green beam is?"

"Oh yeah. Wanted me to throw myself in and turn us all into some kind of organic-synthetic fusion. Just like Reapers are." John scoffed, scooting himself forward again. His pistol was ten meters away, but TIM was only a few steps from the control rods. "Instead, it's spent the last eon selectively exterminating every species that didn't display one important trait."

"Resistance to Indoctrination," Jack said, more to himself than to Shepard.

"Impossible. Organic life cannot resist our control. It is what makes the cycle possible," the Catalyst insisted again.

"Not anymore," Shepard said, lunging for his gun. Harper hesitated just a moment, long enough to fire one wild shot, then dropped the gun, grabbing desperately for the upload option. "Our destiny is our own! Fuck your cycle!"

Shepard didn't realize that the resistance to Indoctrination that TIM had was only partial, so as he uploaded, the man's mind and the machine overlord put more and more power into trying to fight each other. So much dark energy, in fact, that when Shepard pulled the trigger to destroy the machine, the very universe was unraveled between the trigger pull and the bullet striking.

* * *

This entire scene went through Angela's head in the split second of the Catalyst's death, and it made her realize one very important fact – the Catalyst _was_ the Citadel. In the moment of its destruction, the dark energy snapped, causing all of the other Shepards to disappear. And caused the panoramic view she had of a now dead Sovereign to shatter, atmosphere blasting out harshly.

She was thrown through the debris, hundreds of fragments striking her suit, breaking both its integrity and her body. Her last thought, as her lungs labored to breathe vacuum, was, _At least everyone is safe from the Reapers._

* * *

_Author's Note: So, here is the end of __A Fistful of Shepards__. I wrote this fic as a total crack-story, meant to be nothing more than laughs and silliness as a veritable army of Shepards rampaged across the face of the galaxy. Thank you to everyone who made this a Favorite or Follow; it's one of the highest ranked stories on the Mass Effect category! I hope everyone will tune in next week when I start the sequal: __For a Few Shepards More__._


	18. Teaser Trailer

_Author's Note: Yep, __For a Few Shepards More__ is started. Just a teaser to remind everyone to go follow the new fic, because this one is now complete!_

* * *

They picked up a grenade launcher, Neville carrying it so as to keep Victor's hands free, blew up another dozen or so mechs, and paused outside of another door. "I hear gunfire inside," Neville said. "Survivors, I hope?"

"One way to find out," Victor said, hitting the door and lunging through. Behind a steel balcony railing were three people, firing over the top at mechs on another balcony across a lovely four-story drop.

"Shepard?" all three of them said in unison – eerily familiar unison. "What the hell?"

Angela looked at Neville and Victor. "Something tells me the other Shepards aren't coming." She looked at the three survivors, all wearing nearly identical black and white uniforms. "Alright, who knows me?"

The black man nearest her raised his hand slightly. "I'm Jacob Taylor. I'm part of the security detail here to bring you back. I know those two, they're part of the group of dimensional clones you had when you stopped Saren." The other two were staring at him, wide-eyed.

She pointed at the Hispanic guy behind Jacob. "I'm Miguel Taylor," he said in nearly the same voice. "Neville Shepard vanished while scouring the Terminus Systems for Saren. Without him, the geth succeeded, and the Reapers are harvesting everyone in the galaxy. We managed to recover his body after it reappeared, and were trying to bring him back to life."

Lastly, Angela pointed at the only other woman there, furthest away from her. "Pari Taylor," she said. "Similar to what he said, except Victor vanished attempting to stop the Terra Nova disaster."

"Attempting?" Victor muttered worriedly.

"Ah, Shepard, can you give me a minute? I need to talk to, um, myself," Jacob said.

"Sure, go ahead," Neville said, his face now haunted. "We'll just take out those mechs across the way."


End file.
